The Alpena 9U White team suffered a heart-breaking defeat in its first game of the state tournament as they blew a huge lead and fell to Brandywine by a score of 20-18.

Brandywine led 2-1 after one inning before runs started coming in bunches for both teams.

Alpena was aggressive on the base paths and took advantage of several Brandywine errors to score eight runs in the home half of the second.

Alpena scored three consecutive runs on three straight past balls that got to the backstop as Alpena ended the inning with what looked to be a comfortable 9-2 lead.

The seven run lead was quickly erased as Brandywine put together a big inning of their own and scored nine runs to regain its lead and take an 11-9 advantage into the bottom of the third.

Both teams went back and forth, but in the end it was Brandywine cashing in on a few more mistakes and escaping with a two run victory.

Both Alpena 9U teams will be back in action today when they play each other at 10 a.m. in their first of two games on the day.