Sault Ste. Marie baseball closes season in regionals vs. Petoskey
GAYLORD — The Petoskey and Sault Ste. Marie baseball teams didn’t meet up during the regular season for the first time in a while.
Instead, they saved all the dramatics for Wednesday, when they met up in a Gaylord hosted Division 2 regional semifinal.
Petoskey, however, wasn’t interested in introducing any drama when it came to keeping the season alive.
The Northmen got the bats going early against the Blue Devils, putting three runs on the board in the top of the first and that later turned into a 9-1 victory and advanced them to Saturday.
“These guys came out of the gate really focused and Stephen (McGeehan) cleared the bases with a double there in the first inning," Petoskey coach Shawn Racignol said. "That was big. Then it was other guys in some situational things.”
While it was McGeehan that came up big early for Petoskey, others sprayed the ball around the field throughout the game, just as it’s been with the Northmen.
“That’s been the story of the season,” added Racignol. “Lately, over the last 10 games, you don’t know who it’s going to be and that’s an exciting team to watch and an exciting environment right now.”
The win sends Petoskey (20-15) into a hosted Division 2 regional championship game at 10 a.m. at Turcott Field in Petoskey, where they’ll meet Spring Lake.
For Sault Ste. Marie, the loss closes out a 19-12 season, which came with the district title victory over Escanaba and a nine-game May win streak involved.
After the three-run first for Petoskey, the Sault came back and plated a run in the bottom of the first to tighten things up, but the Northmen got rolling again in a five-run third.
The Northmen collected four hits in the third, then took advantage of a pair of Sault errors and a balk to bring the game to a 8-1 advantage.
The Sault threatened again in the fourth, loading the bases before a pickoff and pop-out closed the inning. The Blue Devils never threatened from there, as Petoskey’s Max Ferrin tightened up the Sault bats from the mound.
“Max has a knack for feeling the inning out,” said Racignol. “He seems to get a little tougher when he needs to. He’s just a veteran pitcher and that’s what veterans do.”
Ferrin went all seven innings with eight hits and no walks allowed, while striking out four.
McGeehan doubled and singled with a pair of RBIs, Trevor Swiss tripled in a pair of runs, Lucas O’Donnell singled twice, Tyler Goeldel singled and drove in two runs and Ely Pethers had an RBI single.
For Sault Ste. Marie, Avery Wilson singled twice and drove in the lone run and Josh Lumsden and Garrett Gorsuch singled twice.
Gorsuch also took the loss on the mound, striking out two with seven hits allowed, Lumsden went three and two thirds with four strikeouts and Matt Lumsden also saw an inning on the hill.
Petoskey’s focus has to quickly shift to a challenging regional final ahead and a potential quarterfinal against either No. 5 ranked Bay City John Glenn or No. 8 ranked Ada Forest Hills Eastern, who will play in a 12:30 p.m. regional final Saturday at Turcott Field, following Petoskey and Spring Lake.
For Racignol, one huge plus on the day is being able to play on their home field.
“I’m really excited to bring it back to our fans in Petoskey,” he said. “They’ve been so great to us all season. Hopefully we can continue to play fundamental baseball for them and for each other and for our town.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Sault Ste. Marie baseball closes season in regionals vs. Petoskey
