PURPLE PAYBACK: Niagara Wins Tourney In Felch

Click the thumbnails for photos and post-game interviews.

FELCH---The third time was the charm for the Niagara American Legion Baseball team on Sunday as they pulled out a 5-2 win over the Norway Vikings in the championship game of the Felch Tournament. Norway had defeated Niagara in each of the last two meetings in the past seven days, both on walk-offs.

The Copper Country Flames won the third place game over Kingsford, 9-1.

Niagara pitcher Ryan Erickson matched Norway pitcher Isaac Lorenzoni for most of the afternoon, as a large cowd enjoyed another back-and-forth battle that raised money for the Felch Township Fire Department.

Erickson, a Pembine-Goodman High School graduate, helped his own cause with an RBI double in the first inning as Niagara took a 2-0 lead, and then he smoked a two-run triple in the seventh inning as the Purple and Black snapped a 2-2 tie to take the victory.

"I was in a little bit of a slump this tournament, so it felt good to start off hot and get our team on top," Erickson said. "And (on the triple) Evan came up with a clutch hit, and so there was not a lot of pressure on me, so I knew I just had to put the ball in play. It happened that I had a good hit."

Erickson struck out six batters in the five innings that he worked on the mound, allowing only three hits. He knew he had to throw that way, because Lorenzoni was dealing on the other side for the Vikings. Lorenzoni struck out nine and scattered five hits in 6 1/3 innings.

"I was pitching two-seam fastball and curveball, and then mix up a change-up once in a while," Erickson said. "Lorenzoni is a great pitcher, so I knew I had to be on today. They have some excellent batters, too, so I had to be careful. But it came out on top for us."

Erickson got help at the end from Evan Johnson, the Florence High School pitcher who is committed to play baseball at Elmburst University in Illinois.

Johnson gave up a hit to Michael Peterson and he walked Alex Ortman to start the sixth inning, but was able to get out of the inning allowing only one run when Brent Lagina put down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Ortman, but Chase Carlson was called out at the plate as he also tried to score.

"I didn't know how I was gonna be able to do it," Johnson said. "You know, two runners on, the pressure is really on you. I was just taking it one out at a time, one pitch at a time. They like to play small ball. I was just trying to get as many outs as possible."

Niagara led 2-0 in the first inning when Erickson doubled home Will Kelly, who was hit by a pitch to start the game. Jesse Sampson followed with an RBI single to score Erickson.

Norway got a run back in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by Carlson after Ortman got a one-out double. And it stayed 2-1 all the way to the sixth inning as both teams each threw out two players trying to score at the plate.

For Niagara, it was sweet revenge after losing two straight games on walk-offs to Norway.

THIRD PLACE GAME: Copper Country 9, Kingsford 1---The young Kingsford Greens junior team lost, 9-1, and finished the tournament by losing all four games. The Greens scored their only run in the second inning when Joey Weber doubled and scored on a single by Brock Flamino. Weber also had an infield hit and made five catches in center field.

Kingsford Manager Chris Steber was not disappointed in his team's effort.

"We didn't score a lot of runs, but we hit the ball very well," Steber said. "We had some errors early on, but we cleaned it up as the tournament went. I think, moving forward, they know they can hit these older kids and they can play ball with them."

Joel Durocher pitched all seven innings for the Flames win, allowing five hits. Noah Trulock took the loss for Kingsford, giving up six runs on three hits and five walks in three-plus innings. Jake Lockhart threw 3 2/3 innings of relief, allowing three runs, and Caleb Erickson finished up, allowing a two-run double to Flames 19-year-old shortstop Kade Farrell.

"Unfortunately, as young as we are, we don't have a lot of pitchers," Steber said. "It is hard to compete in these tournaments when you only have a couple of pitchers."