Late rally wins for women’s champion

Bruder?s Farms found themselves three outs from a tournament championship but could not put the finishing touches on a victory, even after a hot start and a late insurance run. Outta-Ur-League captured first place of the 2006 Nautical Festival women?s tournament with a three-run rally in their last at bats. The final score Sunday afternoon at ?The Hole? was 6-5. Bruder?s Farms was led by former Rogers City High School standouts Heather and Holly Bruder, who both made their marks at the college level, and continue to bring outstanding players back for the tournament every year. They were coached by their mom Vicki Bruder. Outta-Ur?League (OOYL), who battled through the loser?s bracket, forced a decisive final game by handing Bruder?s their first loss. OOYL easily won the first game of the finals 12-4, setting up the winner takes all contest.

AFTER A BREAK between games, Bruder?s came up to bat and put up a four spot, a lead which held the lead through six innings. Singles by Holly Bruder and Brandi Bower-Wisniewski were followed by a two-RBI double by Chris Dowling. The four runs looked like they would hold as Bruder?s Farms dodged several bullets as OOYL kept the pressure on. They left the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, and with one out in the bottom of the fourth, knocked in two to cut the Bruder?s lead to 4-2. OOYL left two more runners on in the next inning as well, before pushing one run across and getting to within one, 4-3. After being shutout through innings two through six, Dowling answered for Bruder?s with a lead-off triple in the top of the seventh. She belted a double in the top of the fourth inning and tried to stretch the two-base hit into a triple but was gunned down. Dowling redeemed herself with smart base running in legging out the triple and eventually moving home. When the ball was grounded to the pitcher, Dowling and the pitcher found themselves in a brief stare down for a moment before the pitcher had to throw to first to get the sure out. Once the pitcher made that throw, Dowling made a break for home and got in under the tag with a head-first slide.

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THE WAY THE runs were being scored in the contest, a two-run lead appeared to be safe. It would have been if it were not for two costly errors. OOYL?s runs were all scored with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. The first two runners in the inning reached on singles. The third batter of the inning hit a liner to left that was dropped by the outfielder to score a run. With runners at first and second another run would score on a base hit. The game-winner came home on a dropped fly ball to left centerfield.

OOYL brought in the game-winning run and finished the tournament with a 7-1 record. Bruder finished with a 3-2 record.

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