Courtesy Photo The Alpena High baseball team won the Boyne Invitational on Saturday. Pictured left to right are: front: Landen Spomer, Kaleb Donajkowski, Hunter Cohoon, Grant Jarema, Jon Rensberry and Gabe Glawe; back: Head coach Eric MacKenzie, Tucker Bright, Brady Kollen, Caleb McEwen, Jake Zann, Brady Pagels, assistant coach Steve Zann, and assistant coach Scott MacKenzie.

BOYNE CITY — The Alpena High baseball team (8-3) traveled to Boyne City and won the 25th annual Boyne Invitational on Saturday by finishing the day 3-0 with wins against Boyne City, Rudyard and then Gaylord in the championship game.

The Wildcats’ bats got hot early in the second inning against Boyne scoring six runs and followed that up with four more in the third inning and three in the fourth before the time limit ran out.

Jake Zann led the offense with three hits and three RBI. Caleb McEwen dominated on the mound pitching all four innings allowing one run on two hits, striking out nine in the 13-1 victory.

The Wildcats’ bats continued to stay hot, scoring 15 runs in the first two innings against Rudyard and finishing the game with a 15-4 win. Eight different batters collected at least one hit and six different batters had two or more RBI. Jake Zann and Jon Rensberry pitched giving up four hits and four runs with a combined nine strikeouts.

The championship game against the Gaylord Blue Devils turned out to be a back-and-forth battle with the Wildcats pulling out the victory by a score of 7-5. Kaleb Donajkowski started the game for Alpena, pitching three strong innings with three strikeouts.

Brady Kollen entered the game with his team down 4-3 and finished the last three innings allowing only one run and no walks with three strikeouts.

The offense took the lead for good in the fifth inning, scoring four runs and was led by Hunter Cohoon’s three hits and three RBI including a solo home run.

He paced the Wildcats with six hits and eight RBI for the tournament but nearly every player had multiple hits and at least one RBI.

” I thought we played well in all three games. We had good pitching and timely hitting that helped us be successful,” Alpena coach Eric MacKenzie said. “The kids never gave up and battled back In the Gaylord game. I am proud of them and the effort they gave, playing together as a team.”

Alpena won a doubleheader on Friday too, defeating Brimley 15-0 and 16-0.

TRACK AND FIELD

Alpena competes at Swayze Relays

MIDLAND — The Alpena track team recently competed at the Swayze Relays on Friday. Alpena’s top finishers included:

BOYS — Elijah Allen in the 300 hurdles (5th, 42.68); the 4×110 Shuttle Hurdles team of Allen, Austin Reinhardt, Braeden Mathis and Joseph Sheridan (2nd, 1:14.18); Colt Gray in the shot put (4th, 42-11 ½).

GIRLS — The 4×100 Shuttle Hurdles team of Chloe Lawrence, Clare Lacross, Audrey Brownridge, and Maddie Linton (5th, 1:23.95).