Click the thumbnails to hear Haddie Mokszycke's pre-game interview, and post-game comments from Maci Engebretsen, Barlow Bosk, and Manager Danicia Humbert.
ST. CLAIR---The Escanaba Major Little League All-Stars (age 10-12) pounded out 15 base hits and cruised past the Petoskey All-Stars, 12-0, Saturday afternoon at the Michigan State Tournament in St. Clair. The win evened Escanaba's state finals record at 1-1, and means that a win over Bay County on Sunday would send the girls into the state quarterfinals of the 16-team event.
Amiya Humbert and Barlow Bosk combined to throw a perfect game in the circle in the game that was called on the mercy rule after four innings. That means all twelve Petoskey batters were retired in order, six by each girl. Seven of the outs were strikeouts, and Petoskey never hit the ball out of the infield in those twelve at-bats. They had put up eight runs on Friday in a 12-8 loss to Bay County.
Escanaba, meanwhile, had lost to St. Clair, 4-1, on Friday, but the bats woke up against Petoskey pitchers Kaylee Fettig and Maci Smith. They scored three runs in the first inning, with Bosk driving home the last one with a single. They took advantage of a couple of Petoskey errors in the second inning, with Engibretsen smoking an RBI double to the fence and Ruby Jacobsen following seconds later with a two-run double to make it 8-0..
Then in the fourth inning, Escanaba got another booming double from Engebretsen, one to straightawy center field that looked like it had a chance to get over the fence for a home run. It ended up hitting the center of the fence. Bosk drove home a run with a grounder, and then catcher Haddee Mokszycke ripped one to the fence, and she ended up with a stand-up RBI b hits was a hard-hit double that brought in a run in the third inning.
Escanaba now has a simple task: beat Bay County on Sunday to advance ro the quarterfinals. Bay County lost to St. Clair, 14-0, on Saturday, so both teams are 1-1. St. Clair has effectively won the pool with a current 2-0 record, and Petoskey is at 0-2 and cannot advance, even if it shocks St. Clair on Sunday. At the moment, an Escanaba win would likely match it up with Grosse Pointe for a quarterfinal game at noon on Monday.
But first, Escanaba needs to take care of business on Sunday against the District 14 champions. That game will start at 4:00 and you can hear it live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com.
