Courtesy Photo The 2022 Alpena High baseball team includes: front: Brady Pagels, Alex Cadarette, Matt Thompson, Brady Niedzwicki and Landen Spomer; back: Ev Zann, Jake Zann, Noah Marquardt, Travis Weide, Marc Kirchner, Brady Kollen, Kadyn Budnik and Logan Momrik.

ALPENA — The Alpena High varsity baseball team finished up a Tuesday doubleheader splitting the series with a win in the first game, 8-5, but narrowly fell short in the second game, 3-2.

The Wildcats started the first inning allowing a single that was followed up by a costly error. That runner then came around to score after another single back up the middle, putting Alpena down 1-0 early.

The offense came alive for the Wildcats in the second inning after they scored seven runs to take a 7-1 lead.

Logan Momrik and Marc Kirchner started the inning by driving two singles hard into the outfield. Momrik scored after Kadyn Budnik hit a double deep into right-centerfield. The scoring continued when Brady Niedzwiecki hit a two-RBI single. The Wildcats tacked on four more runs, highlighted by doubles from Travis Weide and Jake Zann.

Petoskey answered back in the third inning by scoring two runs. Both Grant Slater and Tyler Dohm scored for the Northmen on back-to-back singles.

Alpena added another run during the fifth inning on a single by Brady Pagels which scored Kirchner again.

The Wildcats had a few mistakes in the sixth inning, leading to two additional Petoskey runs.

“I was really pleased with the first game, we hit the ball very well and we made some nice plays. We also had a great game pitching,” Alpena coach Phil Schultz said.

Travis Weide had an outstanding game one by having a great pitching performance and an even better day at the plate. Weide started off slow on the mound but continued to gain momentum. He reached base three times during the game from a double in his first at-bat, followed by a single, then a walk.

“Travis is a great hitter. That’s his strongest ability but this has been his best pitching performance of the year for him,” Schultz said.

Game two didn’t go as well for Alpena, despite a good start. The game started off strong for the Wildcats after a two-run home run from Kirchner.

Things began to slow down for Alpena after that when it allowed three runs, all from errors as defense continued to be a strong in the second game.

Although Alpena didn’t score again, they came close several times in both the fifth and sixth innings.

“Game two was the total opposite of game one. We didn’t make those same plays, we didn’t get the clutch hits, and we gave them way too many opportunities to score,” Schultz said.

The Wildcats play against Tawas today.