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Vikings fall in championship game to Alger County

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Posen pitcher Jared Sharpe delivers a pitch during the second inning of a championship game in the Vikings annual Wozniak Baseball Tournament on Saturday in Posen.

POSEN — After getting off to a strong start in its annual Wozniak Baseball Tournament on Saturday, the Posen baseball team fell in the championship game of its home tournament.

The Vikings began the day with a 13-5 win over Pellston before being defeated by Alger County in the title game by a score of 7-2.

Posen got things started early in game one. The only thing that didn’t go the Vikings way in the opening game was the coin flip as Posen got to hit first and wasted no time putting runs on the board.

The first two batters of the inning were retired, but the Vikings put together a nice two out rally started by an Avery Werth walk. A batter later, Jared Sharpe ripped a double to put runners at second and third with two away and Levi Romel drove in both Werth and Sharpe with a single to put the Vikings up two early.

Pellston was able to get one run back in the home half of the first, but it was all Posen for the next three innings as they score at least two runs in all but one inning as the offense was clicking all game.

The Vikings added two more runs in the second inning and broke the game open in the third, scoring four runs on some more timely hitting.

Darren Dubie singled and Andrew Hall reached on an error with one out before George Kroll reached on a two out error to keep the inning alive. The error proved costly as Lucas Stone doubled in a run and Mark Wisniewski singled in a run with two outs as Dubie, Hall, Kroll and Stone all came across to score in the inning.

Posen was not done as they added three more runs in the fourth as Romel, Dubie and Hall each singled to start the inning and all three eventually crossed home plate.

The Vikings scored more than enough runs for starting pitcher Jared Sharpe who picked up the win tossing four innings of one-run ball. Sharpe didn’t allow a hit, walked two and struck out five. Wisniewski pitched 1 1/3 inning of relief and Ben Romel got the final two outs to end the game and send Posen to the championship game.

The championship game was a different story as the Vikings ran into Duane England to worked fast and was effective throughout the entire game as he silenced the Posen bats for much of the game after they caught fire in game one.

England pitched all six innings and allowed two runs on four hits, while walking on and striking out eight to earn the win.

Posen took advantage of an early error in the first inning as Stone reached base and advanced into scoring position after a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Wisniewski. Werth singled to put runners at the corner with one out and Sharpe drove in Stone with a fielders choice RBI to put the Vikings ahead early.

Posen’s lead was short lived as the A’s scored two runs in the home half of the first as Clayton Smith and Eli Werner hit back-to-back one-out RBI singles.

England blanked the Vikings the next three innings and Alger scored one run in the third, two in the fourth and two more in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead and the A’s held on to win by that score.

Smith, Werner, Dylan Matson and Zach England led the way for to the A’s as they all collected two hits apiece in the championship game. Smith and Werner each drove in two RBI apiece and both Zach and Duane England scored two runs apiece.

Jared Sharpe was hit with the loss as he pitched two innings before being pulled due to his pitch count on the day. Wisniewski pitched the rest of the game and allowed five runs on five hits, walked one and struck out three.

At the plate, Posen was led by Stone who had an RBI triple and scored a run. Wisniewski, Werth and Dubie each had a hit apiece in the losing effort.

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