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JUMP FOR JOY: Gladstone Boys Going Downstate
 Click the thumbnails to see video highlights, and to hear interviews with Gladstone players and coaches.
“If we play good defense, throw strikes, and hit the ball, we can play with anybody,” Gladstone Manager Dave Ellison said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Many of these boys played in the Minor Baseball (age 8-10) state tournament two summers ago in Grosse Pointe, where the team made it to the quarterfinals but lost. They’re hoping for better things this time.
“We’ve definitely worked on our batting more, because we’re hitting way better than when we went downstate two years ago,” Gladstone pitcher/shortstop Jaxdon Quigley said.
“We’ve gotten way better since last year,” Gladstone outfielder Joe MacDonald said. “We’ve improved on our fielding and batting and stuff, and our whole team can pretty much pitch.”
After a tough 4-2 win over Iron Mountain on Tuesday, the Gladstone boys were bracing for another tough one. But this one was not close, as Gladstone scored three runs in the first inning and coasted from there.
Quigley crushed a triple to bring in two runs, and then he scored on a wild pitch, leaping into the air over the Iron Mountain catcher, to make it a 3-0 game after one inning.
Iron Mountain got a run back on a bloop RBI single by Brolan Van Oss, but Gladstone scored two more runs on a double by Joe MacDonald, making it a 5-1 lead in the second inning.
“He threw me a fastball, and I was sitting on a fastball,” MacDonald said. “And I just ripped it. It was good because this team is really good on their infield and stuff, and when we got up like that, it was hard for them to come back on us.”
Mason Soper and Benson Ellison had RBI singles in the third inning to make it 7-1, then in the fourth inning, Avery Silta and Trent Beauchamp both had pop fly singles to start another rally. They both scored on wild pitches to give Gladstone a 9-1 lead.
Gladstone closed the scoring in the top of the sixth inning on a two-run double by Elliot Bosk.
Beauchamp started pitching for Gladstone, throwing three innings to earn the win. Quigley threw the final three innings to earn the save.
In all, Gladstone had ten base hits, with Quigley getting two triples. Iron Mountain had singles from Jeb Holsworth and Van Oss, and a double from Levi Stapleton. Holsworth took the loss on the mound.
Coach Ellison was impressed with Holsworth’s pitching.
“He was excellent,” Ellison said. “He kept us off-balance. We couldn’t hit the ball squarely. We had a lot of dribblers and weak line drives. Not really like our normal hitting. I tip my hat to that pitcher. He was efficient and had a great changeup that kept us off-balance.”
Gladstone advances to the 16-team state tournament, hosted by District 14 in Saginaw. Their first game is set for July 18 at 10 a.m., with other pool play games on July 19 at 1 p.m., and on July 20 at 10 a.m.
“We can’t afford mistakes, and we have to keep walks to a minimum,” Ellison said. “But, we can hit velocity. We can hit good pitching. We’re right there.”
“I feel like we’re going to do really good,” MacDonald added. “We’ve improved a lot. Hopefully, we make it farther than we did last year.”
The winner of that state tournament advances to the Central Regional in Indianapolis, with a shot at playing in the World Series in Williamsport.
“We’re not going to set ridiculous goals,” Ellison said. “We want to set achievable ones. So, we just want to go there and win one game at a time.” |
