Traverse City Record-Eagle

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  • Kalkaska players celebrate after edging Ironwood 5-4 in the Div. 3 regionals Saturday at Mancelona. Mike Dunn/Special to the Record-Eagle

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June 13, 2010

Blazers capture regional title

Kalkaska rallies to defeat Ironwood 5-4 in title game

By MIKE DUNN Special to the Record-Eagle

MANCELONA — Kalkaska trailed by two runs early in Saturday's Division 3 regional championship baseball game at Mancelona. Even so, Blazer coach William Vandergriff wasn't worried.

"We were hitting the ball well," he said. "I knew it was a matter of time before we scored some runs. And Travis (Schuba) still had five innings left. I knew if we could get through the first two innings without too much damage, we'd be in pretty good shape."

Kalkaska (30-4) rallied to beat Ironwood 5-4 and win its first regional title since 2005. In the semifinals, the Blazers whipped Tawas 14-2 and Ironwood, in its first year playing MHSAA baseball, beat Mancelona 7-3 to reach the finals.

Schuba, who pushed his personal log to 12-1 after getting both wins, pitched four innings against Tawas and had five innings of eligibility remaining for the title game. Kalkaska starter Zach Bontrager did the job Vandergriff asked him to do in the first two innings against Ironwood, keeping the Red Devils from exploding for a bunch of runs.

In the bottom of the second, Bontrager got a huge out when he coaxed a pop fly from senior Nick Erickson with the bases full and two out and two runs already across. Schuba took over after that, keeping the Red Devils off the scoreboard until the final inning when they put two unearned runs across the plate to trim the lead to 5-4.

Schuba was up to the task, though, striking out Connor Wilson for the last out of the game. After the fina out, the Blazer players spontaneously charged the mound and mobbed Schuba in celebration of the championship.

The Blazers face Shepherd at noon in Tuesday's quarterfinal at Traverse City West.

"Coming in today, I just wanted us to keep playing good ball," Vandergriff said. "I'm really happy for these guys to have the chance to experience this. It's not often you get to play in the quarterfinals. The goal coming in was to take this as long as we could take it and hopefully it won't end Tuesday."

Schuba struck out seven Red Devils in his five-inning stint and permitted three hits without a walk. The senior also helped himself at the plate, banging out three hits including an RBI single in the sixth that knocked in teammate Mason Moses from second with what proved to be the winning run.

Junior first baseman Nolan Guy stroked a two-out, two-run double that clanged off the left field fence as part of the three-run rally in the fifth that turned the game in the Blazers' favor. Guy finished 3-for-4 with two doubles. Bontrager and Brandon Washburn also had RBI hits.

In the win over Tawas, Zach Robinson was 4-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs to help fuel the offense and Schuba tossed a one-hitter with five strikeouts and two walks.

Mancelona closed out with a 24-10 record. Taylor Borst, Nick Lockman and Brandon Antaya all singled and scored for the Ironmen and Dan Johnson smacked a two-run single. Lockman gave up nine hits but just two earned runs in the loss.

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