BC 11-12 Tournament Run Ends

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BC 11-12 Tournament Run Ends

Little League Baseball

BC 11-12 Tournament Run Ends

Boyne bows to Hillman in slugfest, falls one game shy of district finals

By Chris Fiel

LEWISTON — The Boyne City 11-12 All-Stars saw their fine tournament run come to an end on Wednesday, July 14, falling to a very strong Hillman team 12-10 in a back-and-forth thriller at the Lewiston Little League complex. With the loss, Boyne’s playoff record was a strong 5-1 and earned the young scrappers a third place finish in the district.
Boyne started strong and after two complete innings BC was holding a 3-1 advantage. In the top of the third, though, the Hillman bats came to life and they scored seven times to take an 8-3 lead. The BC All-Stars showed their resolve, responding with a rally of their own. Boyne scored two in the bottom half of the inning, cutting the deficit to 8-5 as Marcus Matelski, Tanner Kruzel, Collin Fitzpatrick, and Colton Siradski all singled.
Dalton Gardner came in as relief pitcher for Tanner Kruzel in the fourth and did not allow any runs. In the bottom half of the inning with two outs the Hillman pitcher walked the next two Boyne batters and that proved costly as cool Cody Moore delivered a “Monster Blast” three-run shot, tying the game at eight! It’s probably just a rumor that Cody’s shot is still traveling out there somewhere.
The top of the fifth saw Hillman battle back to score four runs on three hits and two walks to again take the lead. The bottom half of the inning was highlighted by dangerous Dalton Gardner getting hold of one for a solo blast, launching one high and deep to cut the lead to 12-9.
Boyne sent Hillman down in order to start the sixth inning. Down three, Derek Willis led off for Boyne with a base hit. The next batter, Andrew Campbell was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Gardner hit into a fielder’s choice and Willis was tagged out. With runners on first and second, Zach Napont zapped a Hillman delivery and came through with a clutch RBI double, scoring Campbell and leaving runners on second and third and the score now 12-10. The next batter, Marcus Matelski, was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs, but that was as close as it would get as Hillman retired the next hitter.
“I hate for the season to be done,” Boyne coach Craig Napont said. “These boys are really talented. Besides a few mistakes, out of our control, we should have moved on to the finals.
“Over the last two weeks we made good hitters into great hitters. The kids were always positive and supportive of each other and that really made a difference in their game. There wasn’t any pitcher we faced that we couldn’t hit. Sometimes we hit into outs, but we really hit the ball well.
“Our three main pitchers Marcus Matelski, Tanner Kruzel and Dalton Gardner did an outstanding job and did most of the pitching, while Zach Napont, Derek Willis, Jeff Miller and Andrew Stevens really came through for us as we needed them. The community support was terrific and the kids and coaches appreciated it tremendously
“It was a pleasure to coach these boys. I wish we could play a few more games because the team was playing some of their best ball.”.
As a team the Boyne All-Stars batted a very respectable .354 for the tournament.