KINGSLEY----The Gladstone High School baseball team won the championship of the Kingsley Spring Classic in lower Michigan. The Braves beat the Harbor Springs Rams, 3-2, and then took down the host Kingsley Stags, 12-8.
The two wins brought the Braves' record to 11-11 on the season.
Against Harbor Springs, Cooper Sanville and Xavier Lepzig combined to pitch the Braves to the victory. At the plate, Sanville and Trevor Thorbahn had RBI singles in the first inning to give the Braves a 2-0 lead.
The Rams tied the game in the second inning. They got an RBI single from JJ Spencer, and the second run came in on an error.
The Braves regained the lead in the third inning on a long home run to left field by Aiden Burie. And Gladstone had a chance to blow the game open in the fourth inning when Vinny Rebholz walked and Nick Proehl and Sanville both got base hits to load the bases with nobody out.
The Braves, though, went away empty-handed when Landon Pepin struck out and Burie bounced into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
In the final inning, Lepzing gave up a hit and a walk, but got two fly outs to secure the Braves victory.
The loss was just the third of the season for Harbor Springs (20-3). The Rams later beat Manistee, 12-2, in the third place game.
In the championship game, the Braves fell behind early, 5-1. Thorbahn struggled in the second inning, walking four batters and hitting another with a pitch. He walked in three runs, including two in a row.
Prohel came in to pitch the bottom half of the third inning, but before he did, the Braves scored nine runs in the top half to take a 10-5 lead.
The big hit of that inning was a three-run, bases-clearing double by Sanville that made it 8-5.
Later, Burie hit a pop fly that landed safely for a two-run single, making it a 10-5 game.
The Stags scored three runs in the bottom of the inning off of Proehl, two of them on a double by Isaiah Susan. That cut it to 10-8, but Sanville came through with another two-run hit to make it a 12-8 game.
Sanville ended up with five runs batted in. Burie had three RBI and Rebholz had two RBI. Proehl earned the pitching win in relief.
Kingsley's record fell to 21-11 on the season.
Gladstone (11-11) returns to action on Tuesday with a home doubleheader against the rival Escanaba Eskymos. The game starts at 4:30 and it will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.
