Yogi Berra’s old adage never rang more true than it did Friday for the Alpena baseball team.

Alpena rallied with one of the most improbable comebacks in program history, erasing a six-run deficit and eventually overtaking Traverse City West 9-7 in a Division 1 district final on Friday.

After seven years and some frustrating losses, the Wildcats won their first district title since 2010, winning at home and topping their Big North Conference rival to do it.

Alpena also beat Marquette 4-1 early in the day in the second of two semifinals.

Alpena pitcher Bruz Copping yells after recording the game’s final out. Copping earned the win in the final, pitching 4 2/3 innings in relief.

“It’s totally awesome,” Alpena coach Phil Schultz said. “I can’t even describe the feeling right now.”

Trailing 7-1 after three and a half innings, Alpena caught fire at the plate and scored six runs to tie the game, turning what looked like a blowout into a competitive game again.

With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, three consecutive Alpena batters singled to load the bases and Bruz Copping followed with a ground-rule double. Copping’s hit initially was thought to be a home run, but was ruled a double after the ball got stuck under the left field fence.

Josh Lucas scored Lars MacArthur with a groundout to make it 7-5 and with the bases loaded again, Bailey Marquardt came through with the inning’s other big hit, smacking a two-run double to tie the game.

“”It’s the most amazing feeling ever. Coming back from, I think it was 7-1 and picking everyone up,” Alpena pitcher Lucas Crosby said. “We won as a team and we were down as a team. We just came back and we fought and we won, plain and simple.”

Alpena plated two more runs in the fifth inning to pull ahead for good. MacArthur doubled to score Cam Cosbitt for the game winning run and Aidan Goike broke a lengthy slump with an RBI single to score MacArthur and gave Alpena a 9-7 lead.

West got a pair of runners on in the sixth inning, but after a pair of leadoff singles, Copping retired the next three batters to end the threat.

He did the same in the seventh inning, inducing a fly ball to center field from West’s Gavin Garmhausen for the final out.

Alpena has been a paradox during playoff time in the last few seasons; a team with plenty of potential, but always falling just short of the big prize. Before Friday, Alpena had advanced to the district final twice in the last four seasons, but lost both times.

After three and a half innings on Friday, it seemed things were headed that way again. Alpena’s old demons–no hitting, errors and overall bad play–seemed to catch up with it and things didn’t look good. Alpena committed five errors and surrendered five runs in the third and fourth innings despite not giving up any hits. In the third inning alone, West scored four runs while taking advantage of an error, a bases-loaded walk, a hit-by-pitch and a sac fly.

“We were down six runs and it looked like we were down. I was just hoping something would happen and give us a little bit of a spark and maybe chip away at it,” Schultz said. “We had a couple times we had it, it was ours and the brakes didn’t go our way. It felt like we were jinxed or cursed or something there, but this was a great way to break any curse.”

That all changed in the fourth inning as Cosbitt singled with one out, starting a rally that saw the next four batters get on base and a once quiet dugout gradually grew louder with excitement.

“Early on in the game, we all hung our heads and it wasn’t pretty. I did everything I could to bring everyone up,” Crosby said. “We needed to keep our heads high and that’s what we did towards the end of the game and that’s how we scored our runs and rallied to a win.”

Alpena finished the game with 11 hits. Marquardt had two hits and three RBI; Copping had two hits and two RBI; MacArthur had two hits and an RBI and Josh Lucas had a hit and an RBI.

Copping earned the win after coming on in relief to pitch 4 2/3 innings. He allowed a run on two hits with three strikeouts and no walks.

Against Marquette, Alpena scored two runs each in the second and fourth innings to win. In the second inning, Alpena scored a run on an error and another on a balk. In the fourth inning, Marquardt had an RBI double and Chris DeRocher had an RBI single.

Crosby pitched a gem for Alpena, allowing a run on five hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Copping earned the save and struck out two in the final inning to leave a pair of runners stranded.

Chandler Lantz had three hits and scored twice for Alpena; Cosbitt had two hits, DeRocher had a hit and an RBI and Marquardt had a hit, an RBI and scored a run.

Alpena will await the winner of the Swartz Creek district in next Saturday’s regional at Saginaw Valley State University, but on Friday the Wildcats were more than happy to relish a victory that was a long time in the making.

“It means everything. There’s been players that haven’t won it that should have won it and there’s been teams that have gone through this program that definitely should have won it,” Crosby said. “We definitely earned it.”

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