Gaylord dominates pool play, falls to Southern West in Little League State Championship

GAYLORD — Baseball is a tricky sport.

At times, you think you have it figured out. Teams that hit the ball, throw strikes consistently and play solid defense will usually win.

That was the strategy the Gaylord Little League Senior All-Stars used in the state tournament hosted in Gaylord over the weekend, and it worked, with the Blue Devils cruising to a 3-0 record through pool play and an easy semifinal victory, leaving them one win away from a state championship.

It worked, until it didn't.

Things weren't all that different in the championship game against Southern West Little League from Grand Rapids; Gaylord racked up eight hits, committed just one error and lived in the strike zone in the state finals matchup.

Things just didn't break their way, however, as Southern walked away with a 5-1 victory, the Michigan Senior League state championship and a berth to the Regional tournament in Illinois later this month.

The Senior Division (15 and 16-year-olds) tournament was made up of eight district championship winners from across Michigan, with Gaylord Little League playing host to the Little Leagues of Saginaw, Croswell-Lexington, Macomb, Taylor North, Ishpeming, Constantine and Southern.

Games took place at both Hutchins Little League Park and Gaylord High School with pool play starting on Thursday, July 14 and the championship rounds on Sunday, July 17.

Gaylord cruised through the three pool-play games, riding 14-2, 17-2 and 13-3 wins over Saginaw, Southern and Cros-Lex respectively to earn the top seed from Pool A heading into the final day.

Gaylord turned in another dominant outing to start the championship rounds on Sunday, eventually pulling off another double-digit victory over Pool B's second seed, Macomb,11-1 in five innings.

After an upset on the other side of the bracket, a rematch was set between Gaylord and Southern for the state championship.

Both teams scraped a run across in the first inning before both pitchers settled in. For Gaylord, it was starter Will Bethuy locking in, tossing three shutout innings after allowing the early run.

For Southern, it was the late-arriving Axel Cummings, who walked up to the championship game during the second inning. He would take the mound in the bottom of the second and take over the game, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings in relief of starter Luke Bertke.

Cummings didn't completely shut Gaylord down, however; the offense still put together eight hits, with catcher Brennan Radulski leading the way with a 2-for-4 effort. But the Blue Devils could not find the timely hits, leaving 10 runners on base throughout the championship game as Southern pulled away.

Despite the disappointing result, it was still a successful state tournament run for the Gaylord All-Stars. The team scored 56 runs over the span of five games, only playing the full seven innings in the championship game after every other game ended early due to the 10-run rule.

Torino Lamerato led the Gaylord offense, going 8-for-17 (.471 average) with nine runs scored and five runs batted in over the five-game stretch.

Meanwhile, Aiden Locker had a stellar all-around tournament, going 6-for-15 (.400 average) with eight runs scored and five RBI while running up a 1.71 earned-run average and 11 strikeouts over 8.2 innings.

The full Blue Devils team included Lamerato, Locker, Radulski, Bethuy, Aiden Hornbaker, Lucas Green, Noah Vanderveer, Isaac Collins, Kayden Keck, Alex Burill, Keaton Abraham and Collin Piehl.

Southern West moves on in the Senior League Baseball Tournament, heading to the Central Regional championships in Peru, Illinois from July 23 to July 27. They will represent Michigan against teams from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa and Kentucky.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Gaylord falls to Southern West in Little League State Championship