WHITESTONE, Ind.---The wild summer-long ride for the Negaunee Major Little League All-Star baseball team came to an end on Monday as the UP boys lost to Lexington, Kentucky, 6-1, in an elimination game in suburban Indianapolis.
The loss ended the Great Lakes Regional Tournament run for Negaunee, after a five-week odyssey that started with district tournament blowouts in Calumet, and improbable six-game run at the state tournament in Saginaw that included a pair of nailbiters, and then the trip to the Hoosier state for the first time in program history.
“It's been an awesome experience,” Negaunee Manager Joe Dost told RRN Sports Monday night. “We've had a lot of fun doing it. This is a great group of young men. This is a great parent group. They understand what it takes. They understand the sacrifice that it takes. The amount of time they put in to fundraise. Someone planned meals, someone did laundry. It takes a village, and our group was pretty special.”
Negaunee had been shut out by Hamilton, Ohio, 8-0, in Sunday's opener, and were hoping to extend this magical run for at least one more day on Monday.
Thomas Dix got the ball on the mound, but a walk and a single put him in a bind, and then two runs scored on a wild pitch, with an overthrow added for an error.
Trailing 2-0, Negaunee punched back in the bottom of the first inning when Nathan Harvala destroyed a hanging pitch over the left field fence as ESPN announcer Cooper Boardman yelled “the Upper Peninsula is on the board two batters in!”
“The crazy thing is, this field is 25 feet deeper than the Little League parks that we play on,” Dost said. “It's 225, and we're usually on 200-foot fences. He hit it off the end of the bat, and it still went into the pond out there in left field. The kid's got a tremendous amount of power in that bat. It was a shot in the arm that I think our team needed. Gave them some confidence. Great hit. Great young man.”
Negaunee had a chance to add more runs after that home run, when Kalen Johnson and Dix got back-to-back singles. But Gavin Hermes popped up and Jonny Juntti struck out to end the chance to tie the game.
“We needed to get a timely hit, and we just couldn't get 'er done,” Dost said. “The quality of the off-speed pitch that the kids have down here are way better than what we're used to seeing. It took us a little bit to adjust. We definitely improved at the plate. We had plenty of guys on base, plenty of traffic, but couldn't get that timely hit.”
The Kentucky state champions pulled starting pitcher Sawyer Mizell after the first two innings, and 35 pitches, with the team firmly in front, 5-1. Negaunee could fare no better against reliever Levi Forester, who threw four innings of one-hit ball to slam the door against the Miners' offense.
Lexington had only one RBI as a team, as the other five runs came in on wild pitches, errors, and other Negaunee mistakes. Negaunee pitchers Dix, Evan Cardinal, and Johnson, walked eleven batters and threw just 76 strikes in 154 total pitches.
Negaunee had four base hits: one each by Cardinal, Harvala, Johnson, and Dix. Besides his home run, Harvala also made a highlight-reel defensive play at first base when he ran a long way to make a catch of a foul ball down the right field line.
“We made a couple of uncharacteristic field-boogers (errors),” Dost said. “We had eight walks (actually eleven), putting runners on that didn't hit their way on, and anytime that you have that combination, you typically have to outhit it. And we couldn't do that.”
The Kentucky state champions will face the Illinois state champions in the semifinals on Tuesday. The winner will face the Ohio state champions in the regional final Wednesday night, with a berth in Williamsport on the line.
