Hurons have a week of splits as district tourney nears

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

With the season winding down, Huron baseball coach Howard Madsen sees his team as ready for postseason play. The Hurons host the district tournament June 5 with Hillman, Onaway and Posen in the tournament. The winner of the district advances to the Pellston regional against the winner of the Johannesburg-Lewiston district featuring Gaylord St. Mary, Inland Lakes, Johannesburg-Lewiston and Wolverine.

?We are getting ready for the show and getting excited about it. We played some real good competition over the last week,? Madsen said. A lineup of tough competition faced the Hurons last week on the diamond. First came last Thursday?s split with Rudyard. In game one Rudyard took an 8-2 win over Rogers City. Rudyard sent 10 men to the plate in a four-run second inning. They had four hits and were aided by as Tyler Szumila hit three batters in a row.

Ben Tulgestke had three of the Hurons? five hits including a solo homer in the fifth. Game two went down to the wire, an 11-10 Huron win. It looked like the Hurons would run away from Rudyard, but eight runs in the last two innings made it close. Tulgestke earned the win on the mound and had two hits from the lead-off position. Matt Mertz had three hits from the cleanup position, including a two-run homer in the fifth.

At the Glen Lake tournament Saturday, the Hurons split a pair of games, losing to Clare 9-2 in the opener and winning 7-6 in the last at bat in game two. ?The warm weather is helping us and we are seeing good pitching,? Madsen said. ?We are prepared to make a strong run, I think.? Alex Jozwiak went the first four innings, allowing two runs on four hits with four strikeouts. Rogers City managed only five hits. Jozwiak had two hits, drove in a run and scored on a single by Mertz.

Sid Marx had a game-ending RBI single in the bottom of the six to cap a four-run rally in the game two win. In the inning Jesse Wilbert started the rally with a double, Mertz singled him in and then Pat Quaine laced an RBI single. Senior shortstop Erik Meharg kept the inning going with an RBI single and then Marx hit h

is game-winner. Jozwiak started and won game two, pitching all six innings, striking out six, walking two and allowing six hits. Monday the Hurons lost the first game and won the second one against Harbor Light Christian, the team which defeated the Hurons in the regionals last year. Szumila pitched well enough to win in the first game, surrendering one earned run, three hits and one walk to go with three strikeouts. Rogers City came back from a 3-1 hole in the first inning to score a 7-3 win in game two. The Hurons came up with three runs in the second inning, two in the fourth and one more in the fifth.

The Hurons needed only five hits, but were helped by wildness from the hosts. Harbor Light pitchers walked 10 batters and hit two more to keep the base paths full of Huron runners. Szumila pitched the first four innings, earning the win with a five-hit performance. Tulgestke pitched the last three shutout innings. Tulgestke had two hits and scored two runs. Quaine had a hit and scored two runs. Jozwiak and Meharg had the other two hits for the Hurons.