LINCOLN — Monday’s baseball doubleheader between two of the North Star League’s top teams lived up to the expectations with two down-to-the-wire games as both Alcona and Rogers City battled and eventually split a doubleheader with the Hurons taking game one 10-8 and the Tigers holding on for a 6-5 victory in the nightcap.

“These were some good ball games tonight. Rogers City is a good team and they proved that tonight,” Alcona coach Terry Franklin said. “The first game we kept popping the ball up and didn’t square the ball up and we made a few errors that Rogers City took advantage of. Fortunately we got out to an early lead in the second game, but they kept chipping away, but we were able to hang on and come away with an important win.”

The Hurons wasted no time scoring runs in game one as they cashed in early on an Alcona error and scored one run in the top of the first inning and came back with four more in the second. Tristan Baller came up with the big hit of the inning as he ripped a one-out, two RBI double off of Tigers pitcher Jake McFadden to put the Hurons up by four.

After holding Rogers City scoreless in the third, the Tigers clawed their way back to tie the game with a four-run third inning as Erik Davey, Brock Franklin and Alex Stephenson each drove in a run in three consecutive at bats.

The game did not stay tied for long as the Hurons responded with six runs in the top of the fourth inning to jump back ahead by a comfortable margin.

Rogers City batted around the order and collected four hits in the inning. Baller hit his second double of the game, drove in his third run and also scored in the inning and Kaleb Budnik singled home a run.

Trailing by six heading into the home half of the fifth inning, Alcona once again began to claw its way back into the ball game as it scratched across four more runs in the fifth with the big hit coming off the bat of Matt Krisan who hit two-run double. Three batters later, Luke Loyer delivered with two outs and he doubled in McFadden to cut the lead to two.

Alcona shut down the Hurons in the sixth and had the winning run at the plate with two outs but Budnik got Krisan to fly out to center fielder Brendan Koss to end the game.

Alex Altman earned the win for Rogers City, pitching 4 1/3 innings allowing seven runs on nine hits before being relieved by Budnik who finished the game and picked up the save.

McFadden got hit with the loss as he also allowed seven runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out four over 3 1/3 inning before being relieved by Franklin.

At the plate, Baller led the Hurons going 2-for-3 with two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored.

For Alcona, Davey, Krisan, McFadden and Loyer each had two hits apiece in the losing effort.

Alcona was able to rebound and hold onto an early lead to defeat the Hurons 6-5 in the nightcap.

The Tigers were led by Franklin and Krisan who each went 2-for-3 and McFadden who was a perfect 2-for-2.

Davey pitched all six innings to get the win.

Alcona holds a 12-4 overall record and is 10-2 in North Star League play. The Tigers will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to play Oscoda.

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