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Winning big at home

Hurons topple Cardinals to win second straight regional title

News Photo by James Andersen Members of the Rogers City softball team hold up two fingers after winning a regional championship on Saturday in Rogers City. The Hurons defeated Whittemore-Prescott to win their second straight regional championship and fourth since 2012.

ROGERS CITY–The Rogers City softball team’s motto this season is a simple one.

“If we’re doing it, we’re doing it.”

What the Hurons are doing is hitting, hitting well and continuing to win.

The Hurons pounded out 17 runs on 17 hits against Whittemore-Prescott in a Division 4 regional final on Saturday, easily defeating the Cardinals 17-2 (three innings) to win a regional title on their home field.

The win gives Rogers City (34-5) its second straight regional championship and moves the Hurons to a quarterfinal showdown with Indian River Inland Lakes at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in Gaylord. It will be the third consecutive season where the two teams have met in the playoffs.

Rogers City also defeated Lake Leelanau St. Mary 4-1 in the first of two regional semifinals.

After a quiet first inning in which Whittemore scored twice, the Hurons caught fire at the plate in the second inning and never looked back. This season marked the second straight year in which Rogers City has beaten a North Star League foe for a regional title. The Hurons defeated Mio in last year’s regional title game.

“It feels great. This team is really close and it’s a great (thing) to experience together,” Hurons third baseman Hannah Fleming said. “We’re a a great hitting team and once one person starts, we all start.”

Saige Wagner led off the inning by reaching on an error and Hannah Dittmar and Mary Brege followed with singles to load the bases. Brege laid down at bunt which the Cardinals didn’t make a play on, loading the bases for Amanda Wirgau.

Wirgau capitalized on the opportunity, hitting a double to center field, clearing the bases and kick-starting the latest offensive display by the Hurons. Rogers City sent 16 batters to the plate in the second inning and ultimately scored 12 runs, overwhelming their North Star League counterparts with offense.

Before the end of the inning, Wagner added a three-run home run to right field and Kyrsten Altman had a two-run double to add to Rogers City’s lead.

The Hurons picked up where they left off in the third inning and quickly plated the last four runs they needed to win by mercy-rule. Brege had an RBI double, Jayna Hance had an RBI single and Jazmyn Saile had a pinch-hit single to score Wirgau for Rogers City’s final run.

Eight different players combined for Rogers City’s 17 hits and seven of them had RBIs. Hance had three hits and an RBI; Fleming had three hits and two RBI; Wagner had a hit and three RBI; Dittmar had two hits; Brege had three hits and two RBI and Wirgau had three hits and four RBI.

Hance earned the win, allowing two runs on three hits with one strikeout.

Whittemore scored twice in the first inning after a pair of RBI groundouts, but the Cardinals couldn’t sustain that momentum going forward. Fleming singled in Hance in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 2-1 and from there the game belonged to the Hurons.

The Cardinals went 1-2-3 in the second inning and after allowing a single and hitting a batter in the third inning, Rogers City ended the game with a popup back to Brege and an infield double play.

Whittemore defeated Gaylord St. Mary 6-4 in the second semifinal.

A four-run fourth inning propelled the Hurons past St. Mary in the regional’s opening game. Buoyed by a two-run home run from Fleming, the Hurons scored four runs with two outs. Altman had an RBI single on a bloop single just inside the third base line and Kayla Rabeau tripled to score Altman.

St. Mary limited the Hurons to one other hit in the game, but the Eagles couldn’t match the Hurons offensively. Shannon Popp singled to score Emily Holmes in the fourth inning, but the Eagles were limited to a run on four hits for the game.

Hance earned the win, striking out five and walking two.

Rogers City’s regional title win was its fourth since 2012 and the second at home in that span. The last one came in 2014 when the Hurons won the state championship and winning at home makes a championship even more special for coach Karl Grambau and his team.

“When we first found out we were hosting regionals we were excited about it. We talked about it at the beginning of the year at every practice,” Grambau said. “We knew it would take a lot of work to get to the game and to win it, but it was something that was at the top of our list the day we found out we were hosting regionals, so we’re pretty excited.”

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

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