EAST LANSING — For the first two weeks of the MHSAA tournament, the Marine City baseball team had been living a dream.
It ended in the final game with a rude awakening.
The Mariners came up short in their unprecedented run to the Division 3 state championship, falling to Traverse City St. Francis, 5-4, at McLane Baseball Stadium on Saturday, June 14.
Marine City, which had never advanced past regionals until this season, finished 26-11.
“Anybody that knows anything about Marine City kids knows that they’re not going to quit without putting up a hell of a fight,” Mariners coach Ryan Felax said. “The difference is that our bats kind of went quiet. (St. Francis’) pitchers did a good job.
“We didn’t strike out much … but we were just hitting the ball at people. The hits that had been falling the last few games just weren’t falling.”
St. Francis scored in the bottom of the first inning on Matthew Kane’s RBI single to left field. That put runners on first and third with only one out.
But Marine City pitcher Paul Muscat didn’t fret and worked out of the jam by throwing back-to-back strikeouts.
Kane delivered again in the third with another RBI single. On the next pitch, the Gladiators extended their lead when Charlie Olivier’s bunt down the third-base line scored a runner from third.
Cooper Letson, who started the game at catcher for Marine City, came in to relieve Muscat. St. Francis tacked on another run with an RBI single up the middle. Letson responded with consecutive strikeouts to prevent further damage.
The Gladiators scored once more in the fourth inning to pull in front 5-0 before a wild fifth inning saw Marine City register four runs on only one hit.
With two outs and Michael Blunden on first base, the next three Mariners were hit by a pitch. The last resulted in an RBI for Danny VandeVyver.
In the next at-bat, Letson drew a 2-0 count before a wild pitch sent Collin Gabler home from third base. Trailing 5-2, the Mariners suddenly had life.
Letson eventually hit a ground ball and reached on an error as two runs scored.
But a flyout from the next batter ended the inning. Marine City only mustered one baserunner in the final two innings.
Contact Brenden Welper at bwelper@gannett.com. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @BrendenWelper.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Marine City baseball drops MHSAA Division 3 state final, ending dream season
Reporting by Brenden Welper, Port Huron Times Herald / Port Huron Times Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
