Midgets' season washes away in semifinal

HURLEY - A seventh-inning comeback was a long shot for Hurley, which trailed 7-3, even with the heart of the order coming up.

The weather made sure it wouldn't happen.

The No. 2 seed Midgets lost a WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal 7-3 to No. 3 Phillips in six innings Wednesday.

Umpires first delayed the game at 6:30 p.m. due to thunder and lightning in the area right after the top of the seventh inning began. The weather continued to get worse with moderate rain moving in. It was called at 7:30 p.m. with the rain unrelenting and the lightning still flashing in the distance.

It was a tough way for Hurley to lose, but so was the way the Midgets lost on the field. Hurley outhit the Loggers 9-7, but for the most part the Midgets didn't get the big hit with runners in scoring position, and the Midgets committed five errors in addition to its baserunning issues.

"You don't want to see your season end on a suspended rain delay game, but they were the better team and they got the job done," Hurley coach Aaron Bender said.

Phillips goes to No. 1 Chequamegon to play for a regional title Friday. The Screaming Eagles beat No. 4 Ladysmith 10-0 in six innings Wednesday.

"You always want it to go a whole game, so there's no questions," Phillips coach Robert Dural said. "You don't want to have a team think, 'If we had another inning, maybe we could have come back to win.' It would have been better for everybody if we could have finished it. But at the same time, it can be dangerous and it's getting pretty wet and it's getting dark and with the lightning, you can't take any chances nowadays."

Phillips got on the board right away as Ryan Giannoni hit a two-run home run to leftfield in the first inning.

"That was a big momentum boost right off the bat," Dural said. "It gave us some confidence, got our kids excited. He's been a great hitter all year, smoking the ball around. So to ignite us like that right off the bat was a huge spark."

Bender wasn't mad about it.

"I don't care about that home run," he said. "A kid hits it out of the park, he deserves the run he gets and whoever was on base."

Hurley stranded runners on second and third with two outs in the first inning.

The Loggers added another run in the second. Jake Anderson reached on an error. He attempted to steal second and Hurley catcher Kohl Manzanares' throw went to centerfield. Anderson would have been stranded at third, but the throw in from Ronnie Nickel was never cut off and went all the way past Manzanares.

Hurley got on the board in the second as Cole Huotari drove in Natallé Colassaco with an infield single. Nickel, though, was tagged out in a rundown trying to go to third on the play.

Phillips took a 4-1 lead in the third on another unearned run. Tyler Potter hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Giannoni, who advanced to third on an error.

The Midgets tallied a run in the third with a two-out rally. Mitchell Maki doubled with two outs and he came around to score on an error. Hurley left runners on first and second.

Phillips' Ryan Trewyn reached on a Hurley error and he scored on a single by Jake Denny. That made it 5-2 Phillips.

The Midgets scored their final run in the fourth, again with two outs. Cole Huotari singled, stole second and scored when Dante Bender reached on an error in the next at-bat.

Hurley though, left the bases loaded.

"That happens," Bender said. "They picked up a few key hits and we didn't. We got a couple, but I think we scraped together our three runs. It definitely wasn't an earned run ballgame."

The Loggers added two runs in the sixth. One run scored on a Maki balk and the other on a single by Dayme Morlenga.

Maki pitched all six innings. He struck out four and walked two while hitting three batters.

"Mitch pitched a good game," Bender said. "He just gave up really that one big blast. Otherwise it was just little bleeders. It was just, you move your defense in and they bleed one over the top."

The five errors created three Phillips runs.

"That's been the story of our entire season is we have struggled to make plays defensively when we need them," Bender said. "That's a sign of youth. There's only two seniors out there that are playing key roles. The rest are only two-year ballplayers."

The Midgets lose seniors Steven Chavers, Cole Huotari and Ricky Miller. Chavers and Huotari are "tough holes to fill offensively and defensively," Bender said.

Hurley (15-10) will continue its regular season, hosting the Gogebic Rangers Tuesday.

Bender said the Midgets improved this season and really played well after a shaky start.

"To start the season giving up 35 runs and only scoring three," Bender said of losing the first two games 20-0 and 15-3, "and then coming back and winning the (Indianhead) conference and putting up some tight games against the bigger teams, it was a nice way to finish. It could have been a lot worse season than it turned out to be."

Phillips 2 1 1 1 0 2 - 7 7 3

Hurley 0 1 1 1 0 0 - 3 9 5