SAGINAW, Mich.---The dream continues for the Negaunee Major Little League All-Star (age 10-12) baseball team. And the boys don't want to wake up any time soon.
Negaunee won the first state Major Baseball championship in program history Wednesday night, beating Plymouth-Canton, 10-5, under the lights at Saginaw South Little League. The win sends Negaunee into the Great Lakeas Regional Tournament next month in Indiana, just one step away from a trip to Williamsport.
Nathan Harvala hit two solo home runs for Negaunee, continuing to show that he is an elite player at this level. He also homered in the semifinal game on Tuesday, and threw a one-hitter and three-hitter on the mound in this tournament.
“I was just sitting on fastball, and if it was a curveball, I was still sitting on it and drive it,” Harvala said. “It's been fun. We've had a great team effort of winning. Yeah, 6-0? There's gonna be good competition down there (in Indiana), but we're also a very good team, so, we're going to do our best.”
Plymouth-Canton, which went 1-2 in pool play before pulling two shocking upsets, took a 1-0 lead in the first as Negaunee came out tight and gave up an unearned run. And them in the second inning, Plymouth-Canton loaded the bases with no outs against pitcher Thomas Dix, prompting Negaunee Manager Joe Dost to go to the bullpen.
The choice? Evan Cardinal. And the small blonde-haired boy played huge in that situation under hot, humid conditions, getting three straight outs to keep it a 1-0 game. What was he thinking when he got told to go in to pitch?
“That it was crazy, but I've got to get the job done, you know?” Cardinal said. “I just threw a lot of curveballs. I'm really excited. It's just that big feeling.”
Cardinal keyed the Negaunee offense in the bottom of the second inning with a lead-off double. Basil Hill eventually came through with a hard base hit up the middle that took a bad hop on the infield, plating two runs, and giving Negaunee a 2-1 lead.
Negaunee added two more runs on a delayed steal and on a Plymouth-Canton throwing error, so it was a 4-1 game just minutes after it could have been bad in the other direction.
In the third inning, the Big Dawg (Harvala) stepped up and cranked a long solo home run to left field, making it a 5-1 game. And after the District 16 champions put a run on the board in the top of the fourth, Negaunee scored two more runs on a clutch hit by Ben Pannanen. That made it a 7-2 game with two innings left to play.
But Plymouth-Canton didn't give up. They scored three runs in the fifth inning on RBI hits by Shawn Kalinsky, Karson Taylor, and Jett Mitchell. All of a sudden, Negaunee's lead was down to 7-5, and Negaunee went to the bullpen again.
This time, Kallen Johnson needed to get out of a bases loaded jam, after his coach told him to intentionally walk clean-up hitter Caleb Trice to load the bases. The strategy worked, as Johnson got John Safranski to strike out, ending the threat.
And then in the bottom of the fifth, Harvala smoked another solo home run, this time to center field, his third bomb in two nights on this field, to make it 8-5. The icing on the cake was a two-run base hit by Johnny Juntti, making it a 10-5 Negaunee lead.
In the sixth inning, Kevin Dace led off with a double for Plymouth-Canton, but Johnson got Gavin Contreras to hit a ground ball to third base. The throw to Harvala at first was in time for the first out, then Harvala threw to Juntti at the plate for a tag that resulted in the second out of the inning.
Dom McHenry worked for a walk on a 3-2 pitch to keep Plymouth-Canton alive, but Johnson got the called third strike on Kam Taylor to end the game and set off a wild celebration.
It's Negaunee's first-ever state title at this level, and it comes two years after the Negaunee Junior Boys (age 13-14) also pulled off an improbable state championship.
The Negaunee boys spent Wednesday night celebrating at a hotel in Mt. Pleasant, especially after the coaches lifted the “no swimming pool ban”. The team will return home with that big trophy and Michigan state championship banner on Thursday, and will take the trip to suburban Indianapolis in just over a week.
