Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen defeats 906 Sports Bar & Grill in Superiorland Baseball League playoff slugfest
NEGAUNEE — If you were to find yourself at Irontown Field in Negaunee on Wednesday night, you would have found a high-powered, offense-heavy baseball game.
Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen defeated 906 Sports Bar & Grill 17-14 in a Superiorland Baseball League quarterfinal playoff matchup.
“Both teams were searching for good pitching and there were a lot of good pitches to hit,” Coldwell catcher Paul Storm said. “Both teams put the bat on the ball. We struggled the last few games for hits so this was good to see.”
Coldwell’s Jay Daavettila was the star of the day, recording three RBIs and opening the scoring for the eventual winners in the bottom of the first inning. After a Paul Storm walk to start things off, Daavettila doubled to left field to bring home Storm and make the game 1-0.
906 would answer with two runs to take the lead in the top of the second, though that wouldn’t last.
In the bottom of the third, back-to-back doubles by Steve Daavettila and John Daavettila put Coldwell back on top 3-2.
The biggest outburst would be in the bottom of the fourth when Coldwell scored 10 runs on 10 hits to break out to a 13-2 lead. Coldwell sent 15 batters to the plate in the rally.
Of course, it’s never over until the final out as 906 Sports got back in the game with a big inning of its own.
906 Sports would send 12 batters to the plate to get eight runs on seven hits in the fifth inning to cut its major deficit down to a more manageable three runs, 13-10.
While 906 Sports made it close near the end, Coldwell’s offensive power was too much as the winners salted away the victory with four insurance runs in the final two innings to hang on.
906 catcher Zac Sorelle was proud of his team’s never-say-die attitude.
“The guys didn’t mail it in, they kept fighting and got the game close,” Sorelle said. “Our guys stuck with it the whole way, we just couldn’t pull it out.”
Coldwell had 17 hits in the contest to 906’s 12.
Coldwell used four pitchers who combined for five strikeouts. Paul Storm closed out the game in his second stint of the game. 906 had nine strikeouts between starting pitcher Ben Murphy and reliever Adam Ortman.
Coldwell advances to the semifinals in Channing for a matchup against the Marquette Mavericks at noon Saturday.
Storm is confident about his team, saying the regular season matchups between the two teams were closely contested, despite tying once and losing to the Mavericks twice.
“We played (Marquette) tough three times this year,” Storm said. “As long as we keep the bats going and throw strikes, it should be a good game.”
As for 906, its season came to an end.
Sorelle said despite his team’s elimination, the inaugural season of Superiorland Baseball was a fun and successful one.
“This first season of baseball was awesome,” Sorelle said. “I’m glad that it worked out; we had good and competitive baseball all season long and next year should be even better.”
Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.