Gladstone Braves Baseball Begins With Two Losses

REMUS, Mich.---If you had told Don Lauscher before the start of the Chippewa Hills Tournament that his team would allow just three base hits in two games, he would have bet that his Gladstone Braves team would've won the tournament trophy.

But while his Braves did indeed allow just two base hits against Remus Chippewa Hills, and only one hit (an infield bunt) against Whitehall, the new Gladstone team lost both games. The boys made numerous mistakes on both offense and defense and fell to Chippewa Hills, 4-0, and to Whitehall, 6-4, on a bitter, windy, and snowy afternoon.

Blake Ballard fields and throws the ball.

"We're starting from scratch, pretty much," Lauscher said. "We have a lot to work on. But that's OK. Our pitching was pretty solid. We're only going to get better from here."

Not only were the Braves facing the defending Division Two regional champion Warriors on their home field, the game was also being played under wintry conditions.

The game time temperature was 32 degrees, and the windchill factor was 14 degrees as the winds howled from the outfield toward home plate.

There were occassional snow squalls, too.

But Lauscher and the boys were so anxious to finally play on grass and dirt that they tried to ignore the elements.

And so the early part of the game was a lot about the "first" things in program history.

First RBI in Gladstone Braves history

The first at-bat was taken by Jake Peters0n.

The first base hit came in the opening inning off the bat of Christian Gr0leau. The first Braves pitch was thrown by Blake Ballard. The first defensive play was turned in by shortstop Sam Pouliot.

But there would not be a "first run" for the Braves as they had to settle for just three base hits and managed to get just one man (Hunter Garling) to third base. And when that happened in the fifth inning, with one out, he was picked off the base.

Luke LaCosse settles under a windy pop fly.

Garling wasn't the only man to be picked off base in this game. Groleau was, too, in the first inning, after he got his Braves record hit. Although, to be fair, it appeared to most that Groleau was actually safe on that dive back into first base.

It is what it is, though.

Ballard pitched that first Gladstone game and gave up a run in the first inning on a bases loaded walk to Devin Esch, after he had hit two other batters. In the second inning, the Warriors scored three times.

Ballard had trouble fielding a lead-off bunt, then he walked the #9-hitter Luke St. John. Leadoff batter Hunter Conley followed with an RBI hit.

That made it 2-0, then Jake Tarbell followed with a two-run double past a diving first baseman Tommy Bailey, and Remus had a 4-0 lead in the second inning. On the other side of the ball, Tarbell pitched well, striking out five Braves over five innings.

Christian Groleau gets first-ever Gladstone hit.

Ballard settled down after those first two innings, retiring the final eight men he faced with only one of them hitting the ball out of the infield.

Then, Groleau pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning, giving the Braves one final chance to get something going at the plate.

In the sixth inning, Gladstone tried to get to relief pitcher Tylor Williams as Peterson walked and Ballard hit one sharply off of the third baseman. But Pouliot took a called third strike to end the game. Chippewa Hills won with just two base hits.

Jake Peterson bats against Chippewa Hills.

The sophomore Justin Jurek pitched in the third place game against the Whitehall Vikings, an did not allow a run in the early-going.

And Gladstone's offense got going in the first inning as Garling singled and scored the Braves' first-ever run on a double by Jurek. Groleau had been safe on an error and he scored on a Ballard groundout.

And Jurek scored on a wild pitch, so Gladstone had a 3-0 lead. The Braves took a 4-0 lead in the second inning on an unearned run. But three walks and a wild pitch plated a run for the Vikings in the fourth inning, and that was all for Jurek on the mound.

Pouliot came in to pitch, and got the final two outs, stranding the bases loaded and keeping the Braves ahead of Whitehall, 4-1. Then came the awful fifth inning, when the Vikings scored four times and never hit the ball out of the infield.

Ray Copley led off with a bunt single for the Vikings, and on that play, an error moved him into scoring position. A hit-battsman and a walk followed, and Pouliot was lifted from the mound in favor of Groleau. Things did not improve for Gladstone.

First defensive out in Braves history.

First, the Vikings executed the "first-and-third" play where the runner from first breaks toward second with the intent of being tagged out while the other runner scores.

The Braves completely botched the play, so not only did the runner score, the other
runner was safe at second base. And he would later score when the Braves reliever struck out Ian Zweigle, but when the catcher (Jurek) dropped the ball, he had to complete the strikeout to first base.

Tom Bailey reaches to make a play at first.

Jurek wanted to prevent the run from scoring from third, but not only did that not happen, but the batter was also safe when Jurek's last-ditch throw to first went over Tommy Bailey's head....alllowing another run to score.

A wild pitch moments later made things even worse, as another run crossed the plate and it was 6-4 Whitehall.

Gladstone had one more chance in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the game was played under a strict time limit where no inning could start after the 1 hour, 45 minute mark (per toutnament rules).

Jurek led off the inning with a base hit (he was 3-for-3 in this game).

Then Ballard was safe on an error by the Whitehall second baseman. After Pouliot struck out, Bakiley was hit (painfully) by a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Kurt Lauscher smacked by foul line drive.

The Braves' chances for a comeback died, however, when Peterson struck out and pinch-hitter Anthony Forest struck out. So, it was an 0-2 day to start for the Braves.

Lauscher, though, was far from hitting the panic button after watching the losses.

Hunter Garling throws it back into the infield during Saturday's game downstate.

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," he said, referring to the post-season district tournaments in late May and early June."

And the veteran coach found some things to be positive about despite the result.

"Our pitching, for one thing," Lauscher said. "And a couple of the guys we switched around in the order, Hunter Garling hit the ball well. Blake and the guys are putting the bat on the ball. All in all, it's a good start. We've got a long way to go."

The Braves have added two games to the schedule that were not on the previous versions of the schedule.

They will be next Saturday, April 27th, at home, against the Sault Ste. Marie (Ont.) Black Sox Legion team from Canada. Game time is scheduled for 12:00 noon, on the 27th, conditions permitting, at Don Olsen Field.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Ron Jurek, videos taken by Jim Groleau and Peyton Jurek, and listen to audio highlights from the game.

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

4/20	12:45 PM	at Remus Chippewa Hills	0 - 4 (L)	0-1

4/20	3:00 PM	at Whitehall Vikings	4 - 6 (L)	0-2

4/26	4:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	4 - 3 (W)	1-2

4/26	6:30 PM	Negaunee Miners	5 - 0 (W)	2-2

4/27	12:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	11 - 1 (W)	3-2

4/27	2:30 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	10 - 1 (W)	4-2

4/29	4:00 PM	Superior Central Cougars	4 - 2 (W)	5-2

4/29	6:00 PM	Superior Central Cougars	12 - 1 (W)	6-2

5/2	4:00 PM	Marquette Redmen	10 - 2 (W)	7-2

5/4	10:00 AM	Negaunee Miners	4 - 2 (W)	8-2

5/4	5:45 PM	at Escanaba Eskymos	1 - 5 (L)	8-3

5/6	4:30 PM	Norway Knights	4 - 3 (W)	9-3

5/6	6:45 PM	Norway Knights	7 - 1 (W)	10-3

5/9	6:00 PM	at Escanaba Eskymos	8 - 14 (L)	10-4

5/10	5:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	5 - 10 (L)	10-5

5/10	7:30 PM	Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	13 - 3 (W)	11-5

5/15	4:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	5 - 7 (L)	11-6

5/15	6:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	4 - 2 (W)	12-6

5/18	10:00 AM	Cheboygan Chiefs	2 - 3 (L)	12-7

5/18	12:00 PM	at Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	6 - 7 (L)	12-8

5/18	2:00 PM	at Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	13 - 3 (W)	13-8

5/20	4:00 PM	at Superior Central Cougars	9 - 4 (W)	14-8

5/20	6:00 PM	at Superior Central Cougars	8 - 0 (W)	15-8

5/24	4:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	10 - 4 (W)	16-8

5/24	6:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	7 - 0 (W)	17-8

5/27	6:30 PM	Kingsford Legion Blues	1 - 5 (L)	17-9

5/28	6:30 PM	Escanaba Eskymos	3 - 3 (T)	17-9-1

5/31	4:00 PM	Superior Central Cougars	8 - 0 (W)	18-9-1

6/1	1:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	2 - 3 (L)	18-10-1