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'TOUGH AS STEEL': Trenton Walks Off Gladstone
 Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Brad Landis. Also listen to post-game comments from Braden Sundquist, Johnny Soderman, Cooper Sanville, Trenton's Brock Beaudrie, and Indians Manager Scott Kwarciany.
But this time, the way it happened was not expected at all as the Gladstone Indians pushed the Steel to the limit before Trenton escaped back below the Mackinac Bridge with an 11-9 win in the championship game Saturday at Don Olsen Field. That came a few hours after Gladstone had eliminated the new Breckenridge program, 10-2, in the semifinal game.
 Brock Beaudrie, a safety on the Alma College football team, cracked a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning after Gladstone had rallied from a 6-0 deficit to take an improbable 9-8 lead in the top of that inning. Beaudrie's shot, into a pick-up truck parked behind the right field fence, ended a remarkable weekend of baseball that saw all five Michigan Class A zones field a team for the first time since Class A ball was added in Michigan some 15 years ago.
Beaudrie's bomb came off 15-year-old pitcher Cooper Sanville, who just graduated from the eighth grade and will be a freshman at Gladstone High School this fall. Sanville came on in the third inning and held the potent Trenton offense in check with three scoreless innings before the walk-off ended it.
“I feel good,” Sanville said. “I tried my best to throw strikes and do what I could. The defense helped me out a lot. I left one change-up hanging and he hit a home run. It is what it is. I don't throw a lot of change-ups. I normally throw curveballs and fastballs. But I threw a change-up and left the ball hanging. He hit it good. I give him a lot of credit. There's a lot of good baseball players on Trenton. It is what it is.”
From Beaudrie's point of view, it was a rare way for him to come through in the clutch in baseball, which is ranked behind football as his best sports.
 “It's an awesome feeling,” Beaudrie said. “I've never been known to be a power hitter. So, it was awesome to help out my team in that aspect and take it home for us. We just wanted to come up here, and play our kind of baseball. Fighting adversity and coming over it. Last year, we had older, upper-class kids and we went into it and it was expected (the state championship). This time, we had to take business.”
So, the last at-bat, and the walk-off that landed him the Newhauser Award as Tournament MVP?
“The first pitch, I was super out in front of it,” Beaudrie said. “In my head, I'm like, all week, I kind of struggled. Out front, rolling over a lot of ground balls. So, I told myself to keep my front shoulder closed, and if I get an elevated pitch, don't miss it. And that's what happened. It came off the bat, I didn't really feel it. So, I watched it up in the air and their right fielder came running in, so I was like, that's got to be over his head. I kind of watched it jogging down the first base line and saw it leave the park. My body just floated with emotions.”
After the championship was secured, a classy moment, as Beaudrie went over to Sanville, pulled him aside, put his arm around him, and talked to him, consoling him.
 “He kept them in the game for a very long time,” Beaudrie explained. “He did a great job for the spot he was thrown into. Glad it (the talk) made an impact.”
“Credit to Brock, it (the home run) couldn't happen to a nicer kid,” Gladstone Manager Scott Kwarciany said. “For him to come over and talk to Cooper after the game like that, it shows what kind of a man he is.”
Were it not for Beaudrie's heroics at the end, the tournament MVP no doubt would have been Gladstone's Johnny Soderman. He hut two home runs in Gladstone's 10-2 loss to Trenton Friday night, and made a diving catch in center field. He was even better on Saturday, both against Breckenridge in the semifinal and Trenton in the final.
In the semifinal game, Soderman clubbed another home run, his third of the tournament, and he had an RBI single. He scored two runs, and made an incredible catch near the center field fence to rob Braxton Schick of an extra base hit and an RBI. On that play, Soderman was literally on his butt when he threw the ball back in to cutoff man Tyler Darmogray, who threw to Casey Alworden for a clutch 8-6-4 double play.
 And then against Trenton, Soderman, in the #9 hole, kept it up. He came through with a clutch two-run single in the fifth inning that completed the team's comeback from a 6-0 hole to tie the game at 8-8. Then, in the top of the seventh inning, Soderman smoked a double with two outs and no one on, and he scored when Darmogray hit a flare that landed down the right field line, giving the Indians a 9-8 lead.
It's the best weekend, no doubt, in Soderman's Legion playing career.
“We came out strong today,” Soderman said. “We played the ball that Gladstone needs to play. Good defense. Hitting the ball.”
And his catch on that shot to the fence against Breckenridge?
“I just ran it right and got a good angle on it,” Soderman said. “I knew I had to dive, so I went after it and caught it. I realized the kid was off of second, so threw it off my butt and got it there!”
Braden Sundquist threw the entire game against Breckenridge, getting a win in the last game he will ever pitch in a Gladstone Indians uniform.
 “I knew this team could hit the ball, so I tried to stay as aggressive as I could early and try not to give them too many barrels,” Sundquist said. “Just let the defense play. Especially in a game like today. I tried to keep the defense active. They were always in it, and Johnny brought a lot of energy. That diving catch got us going. Knowing that's the way I can go out, it was exciting.”
Trenton had jumped to a 6-0 lead Friday night and cruised to a 10-2 win over the Indians, and it looked like Saturday's game would go the same way. The Steel (8-0) scored twice in the first inning on RBI singles by Ashton Rooney and Easton Tinsley, and then added four more runs in the second inning on another RBI single by Tinsley and another by Beaudrie.
So, it was a 6-0 game against Gladstone pitcher Trevor Thorbahn, who has finished his freshman year at Gladstone High School and will be a sophomore this fall.
Gladstone finally got on the board in the top of the third when Soderman walked and rode home on a triple to center field by Darmogray. Then Casey Alworden followed with an RBI single, and Issac Ketchum got a two-out RBI single to make it 6-3, all against Trenton's ace pitcher (Rooney).
 In the bottom of the third, Aedan Creten came in to pitch, but struggled with the strike zone, walking two and hitting a batter. Enter: Sanville, who had had some success against Trenton in mop-up duty in Friday night's loss in a brief relief role.
Sanville yielded a two-run single to Tinsely, his third RBI hit of the game, and it was 8-3. But Sanville got tough from there and kept the Indians in the game until the end.
“When I came in in the third inning, I didn't feel too nervous,” Sanville said. “But once we started getting the lead back, it was just butterflies. I was just so nervous, every pitch, just hoping I wouldn't do what I did. But, it is what it is.”
Kwarciany says despite the loss, he has no complaints about his team's effort.
“What can you say as a coach?” Kwarchiany asked. “You can't be any more proud of the effort they gave today. To be down, again, they just never gave up. I told the boys that adversity is going to happen in your lives. Things aren't always going to go your way. But it's how you respond to bad things that happens to you. And that's what makes you champions. They played like champions. They proved it today that they could play with anybody. It was two great teams putting it all out there.”
 As for Trenton, Beaudrie says he and his teammates left Gladstone with a lot of respect for the Indians and their tenacity.
“They battled all game, and they made it hard for us,” Beaudrie said. “They wouldn't go away. They proved how good of a baseball team they are. Shout out to that Gladstone team. They never made it easy for us.”
And Beaudrie says being in the Upper Peninsula was a great experience for the Trenton kids, many of whom have never been up here.
“It was beautiful,” Beaudrie said. “This is the first time I've been here. I mean, I've been to Mackinac and Mackinac Island and the Mackinac Bridge, but to be over on this side of the state, in Escanaba and Gladstone, it was beautiful. We went out yesterday on the water, and it was absolutely breathtaking.”
Earlier in the day, the Indians pulled away for a 10-2 win over Breckenridge from central Lower Michigan. Gladstone pounded out 14 base hits and the Breckenridge boys made five errors, after they had won three straight games in the tournament.
Gladstone finished its season with a 11-9 overall record, and state runners-up.  |
