Frankfort ends Hurons’ season at state D-4 quarterfinals
Frankfort’s All-State lefty Kyle Zimmerman did something not many pitchers have been able to the last three weeks of the high school baseball season: silnce Rogers City’s bats. The Panthers saw the scores the Hurons had been putting up in this year’s tournament. Zimmerman also remembered getting knocked around by Rogers City in last year’s quarterfinal game, played last years on Traverse City West’s baseball diamond.
Zimmerman struck out 10, allowed only two hits in the first and sixth innings, and according to Huron coach Howard Madsen, he pitched better than he did a year ago while ending Rogers City’s overchieving season, 3-0. Senior Alex Jozwiak, who pitched solid, limiting the Panthers to four hits, said early on the 2011 Huron baseball team wasn’playing very well.
?I would love to take credit for what they did, but I can’t because they worked their tails off in practice,? said Madsen.
Jozwiak said nobody would have predicted they would advance
?I’m proud of the way they batted,? said Madsen, who won his 700th game on Saturday. ?They put their noses to the grind stone. We just didn’t put the ball in play.? The only scoring threat was in the sixth when senior Jesse Wilbert doubled down the left field line with one out. Jozwiak struck out and Chris Peacock grounded to second. There was a close play at first, as Peacock hustled down the line, but the Hurons weren’t getting any breaks.
Zimmerman scored all three runs in a 2-for-3 game. Wilbert was 2-for-3, in his return to the field where he was hit in the face by an errant warm-up pitch. Jozwiak ende with six strike outs. Rogers City won tis second consecutive regional title, on its way to the rematch against Frankfort.