Escanaba Girls Split; State Title Game Wednesday

WYOMING, Mich.---The Escanaba Big League Girls (age 17-18) won one and lost one at the state finals Tuesday night at Pinery Park Little League in suburban Grand Rapids.

Escanaba posted a thrilling 2-1 win before the District Nice champions rallied to win the nightcap, 8-5. A winner-take-all game is set for Wednesday night at 7:00.

"We played well," Escanaba Manager Andy Fields said. "I expected a split, really, after the day we had. It's hot out here. I'm not going to make excuses, but we traveled today. I guess that would be an excuse, but I thought the girls played well, all in all."

District Nine is basically a travel team, made up of kids from a large area in and around the Grand Rapids metropolitan areas.

They have 15 girls on their team. Escanaba's girls are all from Escanaba, and there are just ten girls...seven of whom played in last year's Senior Little League Softball World Series.

Escanaba got off to a rough start against District Nine pitcher Tina Baar. She struck out the first eight Escanaba batters she faced, and retired the first ten overall.

And District Nine grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning when McKenzie Vallad led off with a single and went to third when Chloe Deckrow smoked a double to the center field fence. Vallad scored on a groundout by Mattie Mayle.

Katie Ross was strong in the circle the rest of the game, and she had great defense behind her. Gauthier made six plays at shortstop, and Claire McInerney caught two line drives at second base. Catcher Taylor Segorski blocked numerous pitches in the dirt as well.

Escanaba finally hit Baar in the fourth inning when Jerrika McAlpine got a one-out single. Becca Piron also singled, but the next two girls were retired to end the inning.

In the fifth inning, Escanaba broke through. Gauthier ripped one to the fence for a double, then Aubree Saunders drew a walk and Baar threw pitches that Saunders couldn't bunt.

A wild pitch moved runners to second and third, and Fields asked McInerney to lay down a bunt. McInerney pulled the bat back, and Gauthier was hung out between third and home.

Gauthier scored when the throw to the plate got away from the catcher. Then Emily Bruntjens stepped up and smacked a first-pitch single to left to scorr Saunders.

Ross gave up a two-out single in the seventh inning, but got the final out, bringing Escanaba to within one victory of a trip to the Central Regional in Elgin, Ill.

But the District Nine All-Stars wouldn't have any of that. They spotted Escanaba a 1-0 lead in the first inning when McAlpine tripled home Bruntjens. But in the bottom of the first, Ross had problems throwing strikes. She walked three batters and gave up two hard-hit singles, including one by Vallad that went off of her bare hand.

Cassi Wisler came in to pitch and got out of the first inning with help from Segorski, who picked a runner off of third base in a bases loaded situation. But in the second inning, Wisler struggled herself, walking three batters and District Nine took a 7-1 lead.

Deckrow had a two-run single and Mayle had an RBI single during that rally.

Wisler settled down from there, retiring seven straight batters at one point before Ross returned to the circle to pitch the final three innings.

Escanaba tried to rally, closing the 7-1 deficit to 7-5 as Piron had a pair of RBI hits and Ross contributed an RBI single of her own. But Escanaba could get no closer, and the split meant a winner-take-all game Wednesday.

That championship game is set to start at 7:00 ET, with the live radio broadcast on WGKL-FM (105.5), WCHT-AM (600), and rrnsports.com starting at 6:45 ET.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Mary Gauthier, and to hear radio replays, interviews.