Vikings roll to fourth straight NSL title, ready for wide-open district

Four seniors started their careers with the Posen softball team (23-5 overall) as champs and they?ll leave that way too. Katie Lewandowski, Brittany Romel, Courtney Romel, and Dorothy Romel have been with coach Glenn Budnick all four years, and in that time the softball program has won four consecutive North Star League titles. ?It?s great,? said Budnick, ?and it?s

a testament to the girls. Even the younger players wanted to do it for the seniors.? Posen finished with a 12-2 record in the league, which left the Vikings tied with the Hillman Tigers. The Vikings? only losses in the NSL came in the second game of a doubleheader May 9 against Hillman and a couple of days later in the nightcap against Arenac Eastern. Posen was looking for some help from Mio in its bid to capture a fourth consecutive outright title, but the Tigers wanted part of that title too. Mio kept one game close and lost by a score of 6-4, but the other contest wasn?t as close so Hillman came away with a sweep.

GOING BACK, Budnick said the program could be claiming a fifth straight NSL title if a lead didn?t get away from his team against Au Gres five years ago. The Vikes were two outs away with a 4-3 lead, but the Wolverines came back with four runs. The girls made sure they had their share of the 2005 crown with a sweep of the Atlanta Huskies May 25 on a pair of excellent pitching performances by Beth Julian, who had 19 strikeouts in the doubleheader, and improved her record to 15-3. The girls won game one, 8-1, and the second, 10-1, although that second game was a lot closer than the score would indicate. The Vikes were clinging to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth when the Huskies scored an unearned run and put the tying run on third, but shortstop Megan Pieczynski snagged a flare in shallow left for an out. If the ball fell in, the game would have been tied.

THE FLOODGATES opened in the top of the sixth when the Posen bats erupted with eight runs on eight hits. Now it?s on to the district tournament in Onaway where the Vikes take on the Huskies again at 10 a.m. Saturday. With the stunning loss by top-ranked Rogers City in the pre-district qualifier, it has given the four remaining teams of Posen, Onaway, Atlanta, and Hillman, a renewed sense of enthusiasm that this is anyone?s district title to win. The early predictions were that Posen and Rogers City would be matched up in the district championship game, but now that Division IV?s number one-ranked team is gone, the favorites are now Posen and Hillman.

In the doubleheader from early May between Posen and Hillman, the Vikings won game one 3-2, but were shutout in the nightcap, 3-0. ?At this point we are taking it one game at a time and as we move on we?ll take it one inning at a time, and one at bat at a time,? Budnick said Tuesday night, before learning of the Huron defeat. That philosophy may still be needed against Hillman?s starting pitcher Brianne Herbek, who defeated Rogers City in nine innings. Hillman will be matched up against an up-and-down Onaway team in the district semifinals at noon. Onaway will be looking to use the home field advantage to pull off an upset.

IN POSEN?S first win against Atlanta, the Vikes brought out the big bats earl

y. Courtney Romel and Julian singled ahead of a two-RBI single by Mary Calhoun. Roxann Hincka was hit by a pitch to put two aboard when Amanda Pieczynski singled home Calhoun. That brought up Megan Pieczynski who hit an inside-the-park three-run homer for a 6-0 lead. The girls would add single runs in the fourth and sixth. Julian would have a shutout intact when she left after four innings. She was two-for-four at the plate, while Megan Pieczynski was two-for-three. The Vikings would score one run in the second inning against Atlanta and the score would stay that way until the fifth when the Huskies made it 2-1.

Amanda Pieczynski and Jenny Ciarkowski both collected three hits apiece, while Hincka and Courtney Romel each had two. Julian gave up only four hits in the doubleheader. The Vikings were playing a pair of district warm-up games Wednesday (past press time) against Oscoda.

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