News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Bailey Marquardt reaches base safely on a throwing error during the third inning of a baseball game against Grosse Pointe North on Friday in Alpena.

Just a day before its annual MacKenzie Invitational, the Alpena baseball team faced a tough test on Friday against the always talented Grosse Pointe North Norsemen.

Alpena came in on a bit of a hot streak and Grosse Pointe came in with a 12-4 record. The two teams played sloppy defense throughout the contest, but the Norsemen were able to come up with the big hits when they needed them and cashed in on the opportunities Alpena gave them and held on for a 7-4 victory.

“I thought it was a sloppy game for both sides, but I told the kids we can’t give a good team like this the extra outs and when we do get the extra outs from them, we have to capitalize on them better,” Alpena coach Phil Schultz said. “I like the fight and I thought we were competitive and I was happy with my young pitching and it was nice to get everyone playing time.”

Both teams were scoreless through the first two innings as Alpena sophomore Chris Derocher started the game and pitched the first three innings, allowed two earned runs on five hits and walked one.

The Norsemen got to Derocher in the top of the third inning as Alex Sonaglia led off with a single and moved up to to second base on a sacrifice bunt from leadoff hitter Peter Ciarvino.

Derocher was able to retire the next batter, but a two-out walk to Sam Cross gave cleanup hitter Chad Lorkowski an opportunity he cashed in on as he ripped a double to left field to score Sonaglia and Cross to put Grosse Pointe ahead 2-0.

The lead was short lived as Alpena answered with two runs in the home half of the third as it capitalized a few Norsemen errors.

Lars MacArthur reached on an error with one out in the inning and advanced to second on a passed ball. A batter later, Chandler Lantz put the Wildcats on the board as he singled home MacArthur.

Lantz stole second to get into scoring position and also crossed home plate when Derocher reached on an error with two outs as the ball skipped past Lorkowski at first which allowed Lantz to score easily.

“We had a few young kids pitching and they’re learning and a few times they left the ball up. If we would have hit our spots we would have probably been a little better off,” Schultz said. “Give Grosse Pointe credit, they squared the ball up, they’re a good team and they’ve also played a lot more ball with us which was something that was key and they made us pay for our mistakes.”

The Norsemen quickly regained the lead as they scored two more runs in the fourth inning when Nik David and Sonaglia hit back-to-back RBI doubles.

After holding the Wildcats scoreless in the fourth, Grosse Pointe took a comfortable five run lead when they added three runs in the fifth as the Alpena defense did little to help out Logan Guthrie who relieved Derocher after three innings.

Guthrie retired the first two batters in the fifth inning, but two consecutive errors gave the Norsemen life and again they cashed in on the opportunity as Steven Levick singled home a run and Sonaglia singled in a pair off of Aidan Goike who took the mound after Guthrie to finish the game.

The Wildcats added two more runs in the bottom of the six on RBI from Cam Cosbitt and Ben Budnik to cut into the lead, but MacArthur lined into a double play after Goike led off the bottom of the seventh with a single before Brendan Dacey struck out to end the game.

“It’s a blessing to play a team like this before our tournament,” Schultz said. “Everyone got some playing time against a very good team so hopefully this will get us geared up and ready for the tournament.”

At the plate, Sonaglia led the way for Grosse Pointe going a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored and three RBI. Cross, Levick, David, Lorkowski and Alex VanDoorne all had a hit.

Ryan Mazzola pitched the first three innings for the Norsemen and allowed two runs on three hits while walking one and striking out three. David picked up the win tossing two innings before being relieved by Henry Zalewski who went the final two.

Guthrie suffered the loss after pitching an inning and two thirds before being relieved by Goike who finished the game.

Offensively for Alpena, Lantz led the way with two hits, a stolen base and an RBI. Goike, Budnik and Josh Lucas each had a hit in the game.

Alpena falls to 10-6 overall on the year and will open with Standish Sterling tomorrow in the first game of the tournament.

“The MacKenzie tournament is a nice tournament and one that has been going on for 40 some years now and it gives us a chance to get a chance to play some quality teams here and gives our guys an opportunity to play in front of a home crowd,” Schultz said. “It’s traditionally a good day because we have the Hall of Fame banquet following at night so you get some people back in town and hopefully get some people stopping by to see us hopefully put on a good display.”

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