Black Sox drop tournament championship

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI -- The Soo Black Sox dropped a tough 3-2 decision in the championship game of the Paul C. Andary Memorial Tournament on Sunday evening.

The Black Sox entered the championship following an 8-5 semi-final victory over West Branch before dropping the shortened championship to Kenosha. The loss came on a day that saw a two-plus hour rain delay during the second semi-final, a 12-10 Kenosha victory over Sanford.

The title game was shortened after the coaching staffs of both teams agreed on a five-inning final instead of seven innings. The rain delay earlier in the day was the reasoning as Kenosha, which is south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was looking at a roughly nine-hour drive home.

The two teams met on Saturday as Kenosha won a 20-13 decision over the Black Sox, but Sunday's championship was quite different. Solid pitching by tournament MVP Jake Thorsteins and the Black Sox trio of Tyler Binkley, who left the game after two innings due to tightness in his bicep, J.J. Bergamin, and Bryce Grimard.

Black Sox coach Mike Lebel noted that, aside from a tough day Saturday, he was pleased with the effort of his club in the tournament.

"When you look at the weekend as a whole, we played pretty well," said Lebel. "That's the way we are capable of playing day in and day out. What we're striving for is that type of consistency to play teams like this where it all comes down to little things.

"We had some chances early in the game," Lebel said of Sunday's championship. "We had the bases loaded with none out in the first inning and only got the one run. In the second inning we had runners on second and third with none out and they struck out the No.'s nine, one and two hitters."

The Black Sox opened the scoring in the first inning after Kyle Sayers hit into a fielders' choice with the bases loaded to score a run.

After a scoreless second inning, Kenosha took the lead in the top of the third when they posted a pair of runs, one on a Cooper Sniatynski RBI double and another on a passed ball later in the inning. A Black Sox run in the bottom of the inning set the stage for Kenosha to score the winning run in the top of the fourth inning.

Paul Pulera stepped up to the plate with a runner on third and attempted a suicide squeeze that saw hit bunt sail over the head of Bergamin and between shortstop Joey Lesage and second baseman Justin Soltys.

The Black Sox found themselves doing little things right on Sunday that were not coming together on Saturday in their two losses.

"(The little things) give us momentum and everybody feeds off of it," Lebel said. "Even in the championship game, a guy hit a bouncer back to Binkley with the leadoff man running and (Binkley) went to second and we got a double play out of that. That's what we're looking for. You wish we could have play seven innings instead of five, but because of the weather and the travel, we agreed on it before the game that it would just be five innings."

The Black Sox now have Monday night off before taking on the EUP Travellers at home on Tuesday and then heading to Escanaba the following day to take on the Cubs.

*** SEMI-FINAL RESULTS:

SOO BLACK SOX 8, WEST BRANCH 5 – J.J. Bergamin and Bryce Grimard combined for six innings of relief, giving up two runs to help seal the win. Justin Soltys and Tyler Binkley each knocked in a pair of runs for the Black Sox.

KENOSHA 12, SANFORD 10 – A two-hour rain delay halted play in the fourth inning…Sanford scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 10, only to give up a pair of runs on a Bobby Jones homerun in the top of the eighth…the two teams combined for 30 hits.