In the most competitive tournament yet, it was a great weekend of softball in Port Huron. There were 12 evenly matched teams and the games and scores reflected this. After a rainy beginning Friday night, the tournament got under way with Huron Wellness/Ashland Stockpack beating the Sweaburg Crush 3-0 and the Great Lakes Mariners beating the St. Thomas Evergreen Storm 3-1 in the nightcap.
Saturday Results soon to follow..
Tournament Champ Huron Wellness/Ashland Stockpack got off to a rough start on Saturday suffering a 10 inning loss to the Columbus Thunder 2-1 and then losing to the Wyvale Tribe 4-2 to earn the overall #9 seed and a date with the Hickson Reds in the elimination round.
The elimination round started Saturday night with host team Huron Wellness/Ashland Stockpack outlasting the Hickson Reds 7-6 in 14 innings. Both teams had multiple chances in the extra frames, but Hickson bunted into a double play in the bottom of the 14th after Huron Wellness took a 7-6 lead in the top half. The final out came at 12:47am as the teams battled well into the night. This eliminated Hickson and allowed Huron Wellness/Stockpack to take on overall #1 Seed Emerson Aces.
In the morning quarterfinals, Huron Wellness/Stockpack scored 2 quick runs in the first inning and the Emerson Aces never could get the bats going and suffered a 2-1 defeat and the #9 seed lived on. HW pitcher Greg Guy came away with the win and Kyle Crawford took the loss for the Aces who only managed 3 hits off of Guy.
The Midland Explorers meanwhile defeated the Columbus Thunder 4-2 in the other quarterfinal.
In the other quarterfinal matchups, the Westerville Capitals defeated the Great Lakes Mariners 4-1 and the Waterdown Hammer defeated the Wyvale Tribe 7-4
In the semifinals, Huron Wellness/Stockpack overcame one of their biggest nemeses in the Midland Explorers. After losing 6 consecutive to the perennial power Explorers, the Huron Wellness/Stockpack team was finally able to get that proverbial monkey off their back to defeat the Explorers 3-2. Greg Guy came on in relief of Chris VanVolkenburg to earn the win. Andrew Putnam in relief of starter Doug Gillis took the loss for the Explorers.
In the other semifinal, the Waterdown Hammer took care of the Wyvale Tribe7-4.
This set up the championship game with the #9 seed Huron Wellness/Stockpack on the brink of elimination just a few hours earlier still battling and taking on a very hot Waterdown Hammer team that had little trouble with the round robin or quarterfinal or semifinal matchups they had.
Huron Wellness/Stockpack jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the top of the first after Justin Davis tripled to deep center plating 2 runs. Waterdown answered in there half of the first inning plating 3 of their own, but Huron Wellness scored 4 more in the top of the second to chase Waterdown starter Doug Hoffman. Greg Guy took over from there and shut the Hammer down the rest of the way. The Huron Wellness/Stockpack offense was led by former All Big Ten baseball player Steve Gerstenberger who hit a MAMMOTH home run that cleared the street and landed on the porch of a home in the neighborhood. Lee Foco also had 2 hits and 3 rbi’s to lead Huron Wellness/Stockpack to their second title in 3 years of their own tournament. The final score of 12-3 was disappointing to the Waterdown Hammer team who had a great weekend despite the loss.
Gerstenberger and Foco were named Co-MVPs of the Tournament.
Order of Finish (Seed in parentheses)
1. Huron Wellness/Ashland Stock Pack (9)
2. Waterdown Hammer (7)
3. Midland Explorers (4)
4. Westerville Capitals (6)
5. Wyvale Tribe (2)
6. Emerson Aces (1)
7. Columbus Thunder (5)
8. Great Lakes Mariners (3)
9. Hickson Reds (8)
