Two of the Monroe County Region’s premier youth sports events are headed into their final stretch.
The first of the two rounds of the La-Z-Boy Junior open was completed on Tuesday, July 21 at Green Meadows Golf Course.
Meanwhile, four teams are still alive for the title in the 66th annual Monroe County Fair Baseball Tournament.
Bedford Elite 12-U is in command after topping Ida Gold 14-4 in the winners’ bracket finals Tuesday.
It advances to the finals at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 23.
Games on Wednesday will determine if Ida Blue, Monroe American or Ida Gold will challenge Elite in the finals.
FAIR BASEBALL
TUESDAY’S GAMES
Monroe American 17, Bedford Elite 11U 12
The defending champs had to fight back after falling behind 5-2 in the opening inning.
Geo Depew homered and scored four times to lead Monroe. Brady Turner scored three times and Nolan Aulph, Isaiah Woods and Benton Cosby two times each.
Jack Schlump got on base four times and came around to score every time.
Ida Blue 14, South Rockwood 6
Ida started fast with seven runs in the opening inning.
Adam Wirth started the game with a triple was driven in by Michael Caswell. The first six batters in the order wound up scoring.
Casewell and Ayden Abram both finished with three runs.
Landen Dutty and Levi Ashcraft scored twice for South Rockwood.
Bedford Elite 12U 14, Ida Gold 4
After being retired in order in the opening inning, Bedford got rolling with six runs in the second and five in the third.
Tyler Birkle homered and Xander Rising and Noah Norton both got on base three times and scored runs.
Benton Ryder was 2-for-2 and scored twice for Ida.
MONDAY’S GAMES
Monroe National 13, Frenchtown 12
Monroe broke the game open by scoring eight times in the third inning.
The first eight runners in the inning got on base and came around to score.
Nolan Kimbro touched the plate three times.
Frenchtown made it interesting with six runs in the final inning.
Graham Zochowski scored three runs for Frenchdown.
Bedford Elite 12U 12, Monroe American 10
Hits by Braydin McCluskey, Tyler Birkle and Xander Rising led to three runs in the seventh inning, giving Bedford the win.
McClusky and Birkle scored five runs each.
Monroe rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to send the game into extra innings.
Geo Depew, Nolan Aulph and Brady Turner combined to score six runs.
Ida Gold 9, South Rockwood 3
The bottom of the batting order sparked four-run rallies in the third and fifth innings as Ida came from behind.
Zeke Billau, Nolan Wilson and Ben Brandjord scored two runs each.
South Rockwood scored all of its runs in the first two innings with Brody Lukofsky, Levi Ashcraft and Knox Harrison crossing home plate.
LA-Z-BOY OPEN
Julian Pirrone of Bedford and Billy Sennett Jr. of Henry Ford Community College both shot 70 for the best score of the opening day.
Pirrone leads the Boys 16-under division by four strokes over Evan Mullins of Bedford.
Sennett is three strokes clear of Ida’s Connor Zimmerman and five ahead of Solomon Schramm of Monroe and Brayden Siders of Airport.
Other boys leaders heading into the final round are Nolan Geftos of Grosse Ile (12-under) and Braylon Frank of Dundee (14-under).
Geftos has a five-stroke lead and is one ahead of Remy Beyer of Ida.
A good battle is brewing for the girls title.
Harlow Swank of Newport St. Charles shot 86 on the opening day while Lauren Tolliver of St. Mary Catholic Central checked in at 88 and Jennah Cadle of Monroe at 91.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Bedford 12-U in Fair Baseball finals; Pirrone, Sennett lead La-Z-Boy
Reporting by Niles Kruger, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Niles Kruger, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
