Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Brad Landis, and to hear interviews with Johnny Soderman and Manager Scott Kwarciany.

GLADSTONE---The defending state champion Trenton Steel scored six runs in the first inning and cruised to a 10-2 win over the Gladstone Indians at the Michigan Class A American Legion baseball tournament Friday night in Gladstone.

Drew Carson launched a grand slam home run with two outs in the inning, and pitcher Caleb Kidd threw a complete game to send Trenton into Saturday's championship game with a chance to repeat.

“It was really the first inning that was the difference in this game,” Indians Manager Scott Kwarciany said. “We got off to a bad start and they put up a lot of runs on us. We know that they're a very good team, a complete team all the way around. But after the first inning, we're taking away from it that we played with them. We played pretty level ball with them for six of the seven innings. We're going to take the positives out of this one.”

Johnny Soderman accounted for both of Gladstone's runs with solo home runs in the second and fourth innings. The Indians had many other scoring opportunities, but went 0-for-14 with men on base. They never got a man to third base during the entire seven-inning game.

“It was tough, but we were hitting the ball though,” Soderman said. “We just kept on hitting them at people. Errors, errors, errors, errors. That's how the game goes sometimes.”

And what about his home runs?

“Well, he threw me a couple of curveballs that I wasn't hitting, and he's a good pitcher,” Soderman said. “Later on, he just kept throwing fastballs and more fastballs, and I finally got ahold of a couple of them. It feels great. I haven't got one all year long. My third at-bat, he struck me out. I knew he wasn't going to throw me any more fastballs.”

Brennon Detiege managed to bounce back after that six-run first inning, holding the Steel to three runs in his final five innings of work. Only one of those runs was earned, thanks to four Indians errors, two of them by first baseman Aedan Creten.

Cooper Sanville pitched the final inning and yielded one run on two base hits.

The run came in when Sanville was called for a balk with a runner on third base.

The Indians will face Breckenridge at 10:00 Saturday morning in an elimination game. If they win, they'll play Trenton again at 1:00. Gladstone games will be broadcast live on WCHT-FM/AM (93.5/600) and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

HUDSON 7, NORWAY 5---The great season for the Norway Vikings came to a heartbreaking end on Friday as the Vikings lost to the Hudson Hellcats, 7-5.

And the way the game ended was the most heartbreaking part for Norway.

The Vikings trailed the Hellcats by four runs entering the final inning before putting on a huge two-out rally. Isaac Lorenzoni drew a walk to keep the game going, Brent Lagina was hit by a pitch, and Evan Haferkorn followed with an RBI single to make it 7-4.
 

Lanson Amundson walked to re-load the bases, and then Carson McLean drew a walk, forcing in another run, and making it 7-5.

Nolan Amundson was at the plate, and he had already had two base hits in the game. He had a 3-0 count on him when disaster struck. Haferkorn got picked off of third base. Just like that, the game was over, and the season was over.

KJ Walker threw 6 2/3 innings of six-hit ball to pick up the win for Hudson (8-17). The Hellcats season came to an end later in the day after a 9-7 loss to Breckenridge.

Norway's first season with Legion baseball still was a successful one, with a 17-8 record and an Upper Peninsula Zone Five championship.