That’s the sound of the Negaunee Major Division All-Star baseball team hurtling down the train tracks toward the state tournament championship game that was set for late Wednesday afternoon in Saginaw.

The last remaining Upper Peninsula representative in the 10-12-year-old event won its semifinal game in dramatic fashion on Tuesday evening, scoring a run in the top of the sixth and final inning to win 1-0 over Grand Rapids Southern.

Negaunee advanced to the state finals to face Plymouth-Canton, which won a rather unusual 9-4 decision over Taylor North in Tuesday’s other semi.

The Detroit-area teams didn’t score a run in the regulation six innings, instead Plymouth-Canton rallying for nine runs in the top of the seventh before Taylor North answered with four in the bottom of the inning.

Negaunee’s Evan Cardinal follows through with a pitch during a Little League Major Division state tournament game played in Saginaw over the past week. (Photo courtesy BaseballMichigan.com)

For Negaunee, the semifinal win marked its fifth victory in five days — without a loss — and also its second one-run decision.

The first time, though, was much more offensive oriented in a 6-5, seven-inning victory over West Branch in pool play.

This time around, it was all about the pitching and defense.

“I really give the kids credit, they didn’t get down,” Negaunee manager Joe Dost said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re not creating much offense, but they held their heads up and rallied when it really mattered.”

And Negaunee’s Nathan Harvala made a case for pitcher- or maybe even player-of-the-tournament honors after he threw his second complete-game victory, something particularly tough to do in Little League with rather strict pitch limits on these hurlers.

After he threw a 64-pitch one-hitter against Midland Northeast on Friday, Harvala turned around and put up a 68-pitch shutout on Tuesday, allowing just four hits.

His line against GR Southern also read no walks and eight strikeouts.

But kind of like Detroit Tigers’ ace Tarik Skubal on national TV versus Texas on Sunday night, Harvala was staring a no-decision in the face despite a complete shutdown of the opposition.

Skubal finished without his win despite not giving up a run while he was in the Tigers’ game.

Harvala, however, wouldn’t suffer that fate after he and his Negaunee teammates rallied in the top of the sixth.

The pitcher himself drew a one-out walk while up at the plate, moving over to second base on a passed ball with two out. That’s when Kalen Johnson came through with a clutch laser-shot to the right field fence for an RBI double, according to Dost’s account.

Though Johnson was caught in a rundown attempting to turn it into a triple, he accomplished what his team needed — a run batted in.

Harvala then came back out to the mound to finish off his shutout, but not without a little help from his shortstop.

GR Southern’s Alec Petracek led off with a single, then the next batter hit a chopper up the middle that the shortstop, Evan Cardinal, fielded on the run. His momentum carried him to step on second base for one out and make a sharp throw to first baseman Thomas Dix to complete the double play, Dost said.

However, Southern’s next batter also singled, but the following batter hit a slow bounder to Cardinal that he again threw to first to end the game.

Cardinal finished 2 for 2, while Dix, Johnson, Jonny Juntti and Ben Paananen each were 1 for 2, Dix also getting on base after he was hit by a pitch.

GR Southern split pitching duties among two players — starter Dax Martin went 4 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on five hits and three walks as he fanned seven, while Tommy Robinson allowed the one earned run on just one hit with one walk while he K’d one.

Wednesday’s winner advances to the Great Lakes Region tournament to be held Aug. 2-6 in Whitestown, Indiana. Another region, the Midwest, also competes at the Indiana location, with each regional winner advancing to the traditional Little League World Series held annually in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Virtually every game of the LLWS is covered on TV, usually ESPN and ABC, and in recent years, a number of the regional games have also made it onto cable TV.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.