TWO AND OUT
Berkley Ends Indians Season, 9-4
A successful season came to an abrupt and unsuccessful end for the Gladstone Indians Friday afternoon. The Indians were eliminated from the state tournament in two straight games, losing to Midland Thursday night and then falling to Berkley, 9-4, Friday afternoon.
In a matter of about 17 hours, the Indians lost what they had been working so hard for through 60 games over a four-month period. And in an ironic twist, just as the team was about to be eliminated in the ninth inning, the only rain cloud over the entire Upper Peninsula burst over Don Olsen Field, leading to a 22-minute rain delay that only pronlonged the team's agony.
"We've been preparing for two years for this tournament," Indians Manager Jim Beauchamp said. "We just didn't play the way we know we can. This season, the kids learned a lot more about the game of baseball, and we played a lot of good teams this year. I'm proud of the kids and the organization."
The Indians got off to a sluggish start as Berkley scored an unearned run off Kevin Thompson in the top of the first inning. Brian Baker led off with a single, advanced to second on an error by shortstop JJ Beauchamp, and eventually scored on a sacrafice fly by Eric Ernshaw.
Beauchamp made up for his error by ripping a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the inning, and then Cody Darling got a single. But the Gladstone bats went to sleep from there as they could not hit the pitching of Ryan Katz. After darling's single, Katz set down 14 straight Indians batters, most of them on weak ground balls.
"Same old stuff, every time we face a pitcher like this," Jim Beauchamp said. "For some reason, these guys don't sit back and hit the ball. We hit well against Midland's faster pitchers yesterday, and then today, this is what you get."
Berkley got to Thompson for three runs in the third inning. A.J. Lark and Ryan Earnshaw led off with singles, and Thompson walked Baker to load the bases. Chris Williams and Eric Ernshaw followed with back-to-back sacrafice flies to make it 3-1. Then, Thompson had Baker picked off of first, but during the rundown, first baseman Cory Murray was called for obstruction.
Sure enough, Mark Murphy followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1.
Things got worse for Thompson in the fourth inning as Zack Slaydick singled and rode home on a line drive home run to left by Lark. Thompson was removed from the game, not the way the 19-year-old wanted to go out, trailing 6-1.
Andy Lauscher came in to pitch and gave up a hit to Baker and a two-run, opposite field home run to Williams. It was 8-1 and the Indians were in a deep hole.
Lauscher kept the game close enough, shutting Berkley out on no hits until the ninth inning. But the offense could only muster a couple of runs. Gladstone scored two in teh sixth on an infield hit by Beauchamp, an error as he stole second, and a hit by Darling. Darling eventually stole second and scored on a groud ball by Lauscher.
In the seventh inning, Nick Kotowski was safe on an error and scored on a double by Charlie Pfotenhauer. That made it 8-4, and Beauchamp drew a walk from relief pitcher Baker. But he got Darling to fly to center, and the Indians didn't threaten again.
After Berkley tacked on a run in the ninth inning, Kotowski got a single to left field. That's when the rains came, flooding the field and sending peope scurrying under tents and into their cars. About 20 minutes later, the sun came back out, they wiped the water oiff the field, and Jamie Alworden and Pfotenhauer each grounded out, ending the game, and the season.
"It's disappointing because we worked so dang hard this year," Jim Beauchamp said. "We didn't play nearly to our potential today. Not hitting the ball, then our defense goes for a little bit. I guess that's part of baseball, and we've got to battle back for next year."
Katz worked 6 2/3 innings for the win, yielding four runs (three earned) on six hits. Baker worked the final 2 1/.3 innings, allowing no runs on two hits. Thompson took the loss, giving up six runs (five earned) on six hits in 3 1/3 innings. Lauscher pitched the final 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits. He walked three and fanned seven.
Gladstone finished with a 47-14 record, the best in team history. But the Indians may have peaked early in July, as their record over the final month of the season was only 7-7 after a 40-7 start. After the game, Jim Beauchamp announced that he will not return as the team's head coach in the 2009 season.
"Coach (Dennis) Darling will take over, he'll be the new coach next year," he said. "I'll be the GM (general manager) for the program. I'll be doing all the paperwork, raising money, takjing care of the fields, and organizing stuff. Coach Darling will concentrate on coaching. It's not fair to ask one person to do all of that by himself.
"That will make the program stronger, and hopefully we'll be back in the state finals again next year."
