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Gladstone Major Girls Still Perfect; On To Quarters
 BOYNE CITY---Three up, three down. That's the way it is for the Gladstone Major Girls (age 11-12) at the state tournament in Boyne City. Gladstone advanced to the state quarterfinal round with an 11-0 win over Rochester Hills in its final pool play game of the 15-team event. 
Maddie Ahlgren with the catch.
The Upper Peninsula's other team, Portage Lake out of Houghton, also advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Charlevoix, 23-9, on Saturday. The Copper Country girls will play Freeland out of the Midland area in a quarterfinal Sunday at 3:00. In Saturday's Gladstone game, the girls took advantage of numerous walks, errors, and wild pitches to build an early lead. Gladstone scored three runs in the first inning, and then tacked on three more in the second. In that inning, Grace DeLaire came off the bench for an RBI double to the fence. Later, Taylor Trudeau had a sharply-hit RBI single.  
Grace DeLaire double to the fence.
That offense was plenty for Brittany Schwartz, who pitched all five innings, allowing just one base hit and three walks. She struck out eight batters. Rochester Hills center fielder Tori Hawkins made several nice catches deep in the outfield, and the District Four champs' catcher, Grace Shrewsbury, made numerous blocks of pitches in the dirt. Three different pitchers worked for Rochester Hills. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see photos taken by Michelle Rubick, as well as a couple videos and some audio highlights. 
Gladstone's Jenna Tardiff steals second after getting her RBI hit. (Michelle Rubick photo)
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