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ALPENA -- The Alpena High baseball team is back on track and catching momentum at the perfect time.
After suffering some recent tough losses, the Wildcats picked up two big wins against Gaylord on Tuesday. Alpena took an 11-4 win in game one and followed that with another high scoring 13-6 victory.
Timely hitting and the ability to recover after making errors in the field, ultimately led the Wildcats past the Blue Devils.
"These wins are huge. This is a big morale booster because we just went out there and hit the ball and played our game of baseball. We faced adversity with some errors, but the team always got back up and played hard the next play," Alpena coach Eric MacKenzie said.
Game one didn't start in favor of Alpena as Gaylord got on the scoreboard first. A 1-0 lead was taken early after an Alpena error setting the Wildcats up in an early hole.
The Blue Devils extended their lead to 2-0 after a single scored another Gaylord runner.
Alpena finally struck back in the bottom of the third after Brady Kollen hit a double which was then followed by an RBI single from Jonny Rensberry. Just after, Jake Zann knocked in the runner by destroying a two-run home run to deep left field.
The Wildcats had now taken the 3-2 lead.
The very next inning, Alpena took advantage of another mistake pitch. With two runners on already, Kollen recorded another extra-base hit with a three-run home run of his own.
Gaylord scored its final two runs in the top of the fifth which was not enough to compete with Alpena's offense.
A massive bottom of the sixth inning scored five runs setting up the 11-4 win. Spomer, Kollen, Jarema, Bright, and Zann all scored during the inning.
Game two began differently than the first, as Alpena jumped out and took the lead early.
A double from Zann set up Hunter Cohoon to deliver the RBI single giving Alpena a 1-0 lead.
During the top of the third, Gaylord tied up the game and even took a 2-1 lead after a couple of wild pitches and sacrifice outs.
Alpena regained the lead back in the bottom of the inning on a few base hits and a pair of errors from Gaylord. Kaleb Donajkowski, Brady Pagels, and Cohoon scored for the Wildcats.
The 4-2 lead was increased by another six runs during the bottom of the fourth inning. Kollen, Cohoon, Zann, and Jarema all scored again during the fourth. Gabe Glawe and Brady Niedzwiecki tallied their first runs of the game to give Alpena a 10-2 lead.
The eight-run lead was more than enough to close out the game and because it was senior night for Alpena, the Wildcats pitched Pagels, Niedzwiecki, and Kollen to close out their final home game.
"The seniors are the leaders of this team and they're the ones the underclassmen look up to. All four seniors had a huge night between Brady Kollen, Brady Pagels, Brady Niedzwiecki, and Landon Spomer and I'm really happy they all finished the year strong," MacKenzie said.
Alpena plays Sacred Heart Academy on Thursday.