Black Sox limp into tournament semi-finals

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – The Soo Black Sox clinched a semi-final berth with a pair of victories on Friday, but a pair of losses on Saturday send them into day three on a bad note.

The Sox suffered a 20-13 loss at the hands of the Kenosha Mavericks before dropping a 10-5 decision to West Branch, the team they will play on Sunday morning in the semi-finals.

The Black Sox opened the day against Kenosha on a sour note after giving up eight runs in the first inning. Young pitcher Jacob Yukich was on the mound for the Black Sox and took the loss after giving up 10 runs through two innings while also hitting four batters.

Paul Pulera led the way offensively for Kenosha, picking up four hits and knocking in four runs in the win. Wyatt Curry, who had a strong day on Friday with six hits in two games, knocked in a pair of runs for the Black Sox in the loss.

The Black Sox, already assured of a spot in the semi-finals, could send themselves in as the No. 2 seed with a win over West Branch. After opening up a 5-1 lead, things looked good for the locals. After pulling to within three in the fourth inning, West Branch put up five runs in the fifth inning to take control of the game and cruise to the 10-5 victory.

"I don't have a problem losing, but it's the way we lose that bothers me at times," said Black Sox coach Mike Lebel. "When we give up 20 runs in a ball game and 10 runs in a second game, that's 30 runs in two games and that should bother our team too. It tells us we're not doing a good job in any area of our defence. The second game was a perfect example, we were cruising along with a 5-1 lead and we made two errors that turned out to be critical errors.

"I don't think we got beat by two good teams, I think we beat ourselves," Lebel added. "We didn't play up to our capabilities. Out of those 20 runs (in the first game), I would say half of them were unearned. It's a wakeup call. You can't just throw your bat and glove on the field and expect to beat teams. You have to compete inning by inning."

Lebel did note that the Black Sox offensive production was the one positive of the day.

"We're happy with that," he said. "We scored enough runs offensively, it's just that we've got to tighten up on defence."

The Black Sox now prepare to face West Branch for the second straight game in the first semi-final game on Sunday at 9 a.m. The second semi-final is set for 11:30 between Kenosha and Sanford. The Championship game will be at 2 p.m. All three games are set for James Field in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.

*** OTHER RESULTS:

In other action on Saturday in the Paul C. Andary Memorial Tournament:

TRAVERSE CITY 8, MARQUETTE 7 – Traverse City scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead…Dylan Jurasin pitched all seven innings for Marquette…Tyson Shink and Cory Williams had two hits each for Traverse City

SANFORD 13, EUP TRAVELLERS 2 – Sanford opened up a 3-0 first inning lead and held an 8-0 advantage through three…Greg Bartlett had three hits for Sanford

SANFORD 14, PETOSKEY 4 – Justin Hockemeyer hit a two-run homerun for Sanford…the two teams combined to make seven errors in the game

WEST BRANCH 6, PETOSKEY 5 – Petoskey's five runs came on just six hits…Mike Noffsinger had threehits for West Branch

MARQUETTE 15, EUP TRAVELLERS 2 – Matt Wuokko hit a three run homerun in the win…the game was called after four innings due to the 10-run difference…the Travellers made four errors in the loss

KENOSHA 9, TRAVERSE CITY 2 – Kris Reitermann had the games' lone homerun for Kenosha…Paul Pulera, Reitermann, and Garry Paskiewicz each knocked in two runs.