News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Hillman’s Cam Koenig gets called out a close play at first base while Rogers City first baseman Deuce Tulgestka stretches to receive the ball just in time for an out during the first game of a North Star league doubleheader on Thursday at Gilpin Memorial Field.

ROGERS CITY — If playing shorthanded wasn’t bad enough for the Hillman baseball team, the Tigers hurt themselves even more by committing several mistakes and were swept in an important North Star League doubleheader on Thursday in Rogers City, falling to the Hurons 4-3 and 5-0.

“I told the boys after the game that we have to be better defensively. Our pitching is too good for us to let two games like that slip away,” Hillman coach Rick Firman said. “We made a few mistakes in the second game, but the first one was very winnable. We addressed it this week in practice and will continue to address it until we start getting better at it.”

On the opposite side, Rogers City played two solid games and was steady at the plate and in the field, cashing in on the Tigers’ mistakes and did everything necessary to come away with two key NSL victories.

“One of the biggest things we work for is throwing strikes and both of our pitchers did that today,” Rogers City coach Matt Bredow said. “We stress on throwing strikes, putting the ball in play and making the routine play and that won ball games today. It’s a good formula to win high school baseball games and we proved it today because Hillman is a good ball club.”

The Hurons got on the board early in game one as they scored the first two runs of the game when Brendan Koss reached on an error and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Deuce Tulgestka and Kaleb Budnik singled and scored on a wild pitch.

Rogers City grabbed a three run lead in the bottom of the second and capitalized on another Hillman error as Jacob Hein hit a one out single and advanced to second on an outfield error before reaching third base on a passed ball. Hein then came across to score as Alex Altman helped his own cause hitting a ground ball to short that drove in the run.

The Tigers began to claw back in the top of the third third as they scratched across two runs after Nash Steinke and Caine Hunt score on RBI from Jared Juergens and Kyler Moir.

Rogers City got one run back in the home half of the fourth when Matt Altman doubled and scored on another passed ball.

The Hurons made plays in the field and held Hillman in check most of the way as the Tigers ran themselves out of a few innings with baserunning mistakes and failed to get much going after Juergens led off the sixth with a single and scored on one of Rogers City’s few errors of the night.

Kyler Moir took the loss for Hillman, pitching five innings, allowing four runs, one earned, on six hits while striking out five.

Alex Altman picked up the win tossing an efficient complete six innings, needing just 68 pitches to slow down the Hillman offense which had a lot of one pitch outs. Altman allowed just three hits, while walking one and struck out just one as he did a good job pounding the strike zone and pitching to contact.

Budnik led the Hurons offensively going 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Hillman was led by Juergens who was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Rogers City got another efficient outing in the nightcap as Budnik tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing just five hits and walked two while also throwing just 68 pitches over six innings.

“With the new pitch count rule, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from either of my two pitchers,” Bredow said. “They stuck to the plan, threw strikes and our defense made the routine plays behind them.”

Again the Hurons scored two runs in the first inning as both Koss and Budnik scored after reaching on back-to-back singles. Hein collected the sacrifice fly RBI that scored Budnik.

Both teams were then held scoreless for the next three innings before Rogers City scored three runs in the fifth inning as Tulgestka reached on an error, Hein singled and Caleb Karsten walked to load the bases with one out. Tristan Baller singled home Tulgestka and Drew Budnik came up with a two out pinch-hit single that scored Hein and Karsten.

Hillman had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the sixth, but Budnik got Gage Steinke to fly out to right field to end the game as the Hurons handed Hillman its first two NSL losses.

“A lot of our younger guys have been getting game action lately and that’s going to pay off huge for us down the line,” Firman said. “The more game reps that our younger guys get, the better they off they will be further down the line.”

Rogers City improves to 6-6 overall on the season and is 4-2 in league play with a handful of league games to make up.

The Tigers fall to 17-7 overall and are 10-2 in NSL play.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.