News Photo by James Andersen Rogers City's Tristan Baller (2) makes contact with a pitch during a baseball game against Mio on Monday at Gilpin Field in Rogers City.

ROGERS CITY–One of the Rogers City baseball team’s biggest goals this season is to improve every time it plays.

But picking up big wins along the way doesn’t hurt either.

The Hurons got clutch hitting at the right time on Monday to sweep a North Star League doubleheader against Mio at Gilpin Field. The Hurons took game one 4-3 and won game two 11-3.

Caleb Karsten’s RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning gave the Hurons a win in the opener and the sweep improves the Hurons’ league record to 10-2.

“People will probably doubt me to say this, but I’m really not worried about the North Star League. I’m worried about advancing our team and making the small plays and making our team better,” Rogers City coach Matt Bredow said. “It’s nice to get the wins that come along with it, but our main focus is to become a better ball club (in) every game we play.”

The Hurons trailed 3-0 after one inning in the opener, but slowly clawed their back into the game and tied it 3-3 in the third inning. After both teams scattered hits for the next few innings, the Hurons came away with the walk-off win.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Matt Altman doubled to right field, bringing Karsten to the plate. The senior shortstop fell behind in the count 0-2 before fouling off several pitches and eventually made contact with a ball that hit the same gap as Altman’s double, bringing Altman around to score the winning run.

“It was clutch. Matt Altman really saw the ball well today. He had a monster of a day and had some big key hits,” Bredow said. “That at-bat that Caleb had was absolutely phenomenal. He had two strikes on him, he fouled off three I think, three or four and pushed one to the other side. That’s what baseball’s about.”

Reilly McMaster’s two-run double helped stake Mio a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but after a fast start the Thunderbolts were limited to three hits the rest of the way.

Andrew Radke had an RBI groundout for the Hurons in the first inning, Karsten had one in the second inning and Kaleb Budnick scored on a passed ball in the third inning to tie the game.

Budnik and Altman each had two hits and scored twice for the Hurons and Karsten had a hit and two RBI.

Budnik earned the win for the Hurons, allowing three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Cam Demory took the loss for Mio, allowing four runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk.

The late inning rally seemed to be the spark the Hurons needed in the nightcap as Rogers City scored twice in the first inning and the first three batters each had a hit.

Andrew Radke drove in both runs with a single.

Mio cut the lead in half during the second inning on an RBI single from Andrew Hager, but the Hurons broke things open with a five-run fourth inning.

Deuce Tulgestka, who was hitless in the opener, broke out of his slump with a two-run single in the fourth and Budnick and Tristan Baller added an RBI single and RBI triple respectively.

Tulgestka added a two-run double in the next inning as Rogers City tacked on four more runs and was one of six Huron starters to have at least one RBI in the win.

“The bats were a little bit cold I would say in the first game. I’m not taking anything away from Mio’s pitcher,” Bredow said. “Obviously big plays or big hits like that get a team rolling and everyone contributed a lot more at the plate.”

Budnik had three hits, an RBI and scored three runs; Radke had three hits and three RBI; Tulgestka had two hits and four RBI; Baller had two hits and an RBI and Altman had a hit and an RBI.

Mio scored twice in the fifth inning to make it 7-3 before Rogers City’s last scoring outburst, but was plagued again by an inability to drive in runners.

Demory and Brendan DeFlorio each had two hits for Mio. Garrett Rhoads took the loss for the Thunderbolts and Jacob Hilla earned the win for Rogers City after pitching the first two innings.

Rogers City hosts Oscoda at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.