Click the thumbnails to see video highlights from all three games in this article, and for interviews with Cam Varda, Pablo Finley, Trent McLain, Garrett Brown, and Luke Rice.
Click the AUDIO button to hear interviews from Saturday's RRN post-game show with Finley and Rice.
ADRIAN, Mich.---The Kingsford Greens American Legion Baseball team never seems to do things the easy way.
Last year, they had to battle back through the loser's bracket to win a state championship. They did, beating Stevensville-Lakeshore twice on the Stevensville field to claim the trophy.
Well, this weekend, the Greens had to do things the hard way again.
After losing their first game to a team that turned out to be filled with kids from way too many communities to be a legal Class A team, Kingsford had to start winning games in the loser's bracket.
On Friday, the Greens beat Stevensville-Lakeshore, 10-3, then took out Hudson, 8-2.
The Greens were then denied all of their requests for possible ways to erase that loss to the illegal North Branch team.
The Greens entered Saturday's play needing to beat Breckenridge Post 295 twice while saddled with a loss taken against an illegal team.
Kingsford took on the challenge, getting a win over Breckenridge, 8-5, to force a winner-take-all state championship game on Sunday afternoon.
But as usual, the Greens didn't do that the easy way. Kingsford carried a 6-1 lead into the sixth inning behind the pitching of Jack Kriegl and the hitting of Pablo Finley, but things got hairy down the stretch.
Kriegl had thrown an average of just eleven pitches per inning, and he looked to be cruising to a complete-game victory. But things went badly when a fly ball off the bat of Dylan Davenport was misplayed in center field, opening the door for the Mt. Pleasant-area team to get back into the game.
Instead of a third out to end the sixth inning, the error boosted the Breckenridge team. Their dugout got lively, and Kriegl's pitching became erratic. He walked two batters, gave up a line drive RBI single by nine hitter Jason Scholer, and was pulled with the bases loaded.
Finley was brought in to pitch, and he hit the first batter he faced, bringing home another run, cutting Kingsford's lead to 6-5. Finley, though, induced #3 batter Gavin Corbat to fly out to right-center field, with Cam Varda making a good running catch of that sinking line drive.
Then, in the top of the seventh inning, Kingsford got a pair of much-needed runs. Luke Rice drew a one-out walk in the nine hole, and then Kriegl got an infield hit when the pitcher (Scholer) could not field the bouncing ball. With two out, Finley came through again with a line drive base hit, his fourth of the game, bringing i Kingsford's seventh run. Trent McLain came through with a line drive past the mound and into center field, bringing in Finley, and making it an 8-5 game.
In the bottom of the seventh, Finley walked the first man he faced. But two fly balls to Varda and a nice defensive play by Owen Baij ended the game. And now, the Kingsford team gets to play for a state championship Sunday afternoon.
Early in the game, Breckenridge (8-12-1) made six errors, all in the infield, and Kingsford (19-4-1) took advantage, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 6-1 lead. Finley carried the big stick, with four base hits, all of them bringing in a run. Varda contributed a triple and an RBI single, and he scored three times. McLain had a pair of base hits late in the game, both of which drove in runs.
Kingsford stranded twelve baserunners, but won anyway.
Kriegl earned the victory on the mound, going 5 2/3 innings and allowing only one earned run. Finley got the final four outs to get the save, allowing two base runners but no hits or runs.
In Friday's 10-3 win over Stevensville-Lakeshore, Mason Koski earned the win, with Kriegl throwing the final few pitches to finish the win.
Garrett Brown had an artificial-turf-triple to bring in a run in the second inning to bring home a run, Finley had a triple and scored on a Baij single in the fifth inning, and McLain highlighted a four-run sixth inning with a two-run double. Brad Bottesi added an RBI single in the fourth inning, and had two hits in total.
Kriegl, at the top of the order, had two singles and a double. One of his singles was a sweet bunt single in the fourth inning, but a line drive double play ended the threat. Kingsford had 15 hits altogether. Stevensville (12-15-1) got two hits each from Kyler Marshall and Kellen O'Donnell. AJ Smit took the pitching loss.
Later in the day on Friday, Kingsford had to play another elimination game, against the Hudson Hellcats. The Greens jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Finley and a sacrifice fly by McLain, but the Hellcats (10-12-0) tied it in the top of the second inning on a Royce Beal infield base hit to bounced high into the air off of the turf. Two runs scored, and it was 2-2.
Varda kept the Hellcats off the board until he ran out of pitches with one out in the sixth inning. Finley came on to get the final five outs. He gave up one hit and pegged another batter, but he did not allow a run.
Kingsford played strong defense, turning double plays to end both the fifth and sixth innings, with Baij and shortstop and Brown at second base making the plays.
Offensively, Varda and Finley both had two hits and Colin Olsen had two hits and an RBI. Rice, at the bottom of the order, reached base all three times with a base hit and two walks. He also reached base three times against Stevensville, and reached twice in Saturday's game against Breckenridge.
Now, all of the off-field political drama, and 21 innings of loser bracket baseball, mean nothing. It comes down to one winner-take-all state championship game between Kingsford and Breckenridge Sunday afternoon. The game is scheduled to start at 12:30 Central time (1:30 in Adrian). Listen live on FM-94.3 The Breeze.
