Menominee Red Wave Eliminated At State Tourney
Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and hear post-game comments from Menominee Manager John Lauzer.
MARQUETTE---The Menominee Red Wave American Legion baseball team had its season come to an end on Friday, losing to Rosebush out of Mount Pleasant, 9-2, in the state tournament in Marquette.
Menominee had stayed alive earlier in the day with a 6-2 win over Blissfield.
Menominee Manager John Lauzer says it was a good season despite Friday's loss.
"I think we had two wins in our first twelve games," Lauzer said. "We were playing as a young team. We started to figure out what we wanted to do. I tell you what, I'm so proud of them being in the final four (in the state)."
In the morning game, Menominee scored five runs in the first inning. taking advantage of three walks issued by Blissfield pitcher Kage Little.
Kaedaen Calacri's two-run double was the big hit of the inning. That was more than enough offense for Andrew Schroeder, who threw 6 1/3 innings of baseball before running out of pitches on the 105-pitch count. He allowed six hits and five walks, but made the pitches when he needed to, striking out ten Blissfield batters.
"I was throwing mostly fastball, fastball, but after a while they caught on, so I mixed in teh curveball and slider," Schroeder said. "i gave 'em everything i had."
Indeed, he did. Schroeder had three hits at the plate as well (two singles and double).
In the knockout game though, Menominee fell behind 4-0 in the first inning as the team of mostly Mount Pleasant High School kids batted around against Menominee starting pitcher Zach Starzynski. Max Sly had the big hit for Rosebush: a two-run double.
Menominee got RBI singles from Ethan Russell in the first inning and Dawson Allgeyer in the sixth. But Rosebush scored five runs against Starzynski in the fifth inning to ice the game.
"He ran out of gas," Lauzer said of Starzynski. "He gave me everything he had."
Andrew Funnell threw six innings for Rosebush, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks over six innings.He struck out four batters.
