Black Sox open tournament on winning note

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI -- After a slow start, the Soo Cambrian Mazda Midget Black Sox began to find a groove early on Friday morning which led to a 2-0 record in the Paul C. Andary Memorial Tournament being held in Sault, Michigan this weekend.

The Sox got off to a bit of a slow start when they opened the tournament against Marquette. The Sox fell behind 3-1 after one inning. A five-run second inning pulled the Sox ahead 6-4 through two. Thanks to the five-run inning, the Sox never relinquished the lead and posted a 10-5 victory.

Wyatt Curry had a strong game going three-for-four and knocked in four runs in the win. Joey Lesage also had a pair of hits in the win. Dylan Jurasin had two hits for Marquette.

The Sox capped off the opening day of the tournament with another victory, 5-2 over Sanford. Curry had another strong game with three hits, including a homerun in the first inning and a pair of singles later in the game. Kyle Diotte added a pair of hits in the win.

Lesage had the play of the game in the fourth inning when he helped complete a triple play. Lesage nabbed a line drive hit to him at shortstop before stepping on second base to record the second out, and throwing to Jacob Lake at first base to complete the play.

"That was a huge play at the time," said Black Sox coach Mike Lebel. "It was 4-2 at the time and with the bases loaded and none out, if the ball would have gone up the alley, it could have been trouble. It was a momentum shift for us and we fed off of that."

The Sox went on to add another run in the bottom of the fourth inning to seal up a 5-2 win, giving the Black Sox a good position heading into the second day of the tournament.

"In any tournament in any sport you like to get off to a good start," Lebel said. "We've got two wins under our belt and one more out of two games tomorrow should put us into the final four for Sunday. You would rather have those two wins today and look for one tomorrow than going for two wins tomorrow."

The Sox expect a pair of tough outings on Saturday as they face a pair of undefeated teams in the Kenosha Mavericks and West Branch. Times for the games are 3 p.m. against Kenosha and 5:30 p.m. against West Branch.

*** OTHER RESULTS:

SANFORD 3, TRAVERSE CITY 0 – Tyler Walter gave up two hits in seven innings to earn the complete-game shutout…Tom Snyder had a pair of hits for Sanford…Sanford finished the game with four hits

KENOSHA 15, EUP TRAVELLERS 2 – Kenosha was held scoreless in just one inning (third)…pitcher Bobby Jones knocked in four runs for Kenosha…Jake Morman had three hits for Kenosha

KENOSHA 8, PETOSKEY 1 -- Kenosha scored four first inning runs…Cooper Sniatyn had three hits for Kenosha

WEST BRANCH 10, TRAVERSE CITY 4 – Six West Branch runs in the final two innings broke a 4-4 tie through five innings…Curt Lyons and Kyle Weber had three hits each for West Branch…Scott Purdy and Jim Peters had two hits each for Traverse City

WEST BRANCH 2, EUP TRAVELLERS 1 -- West Branch fell behind 1-0 before scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning…the two teams combined for 10 hits total

MARQUETTE 8, PETOSKEY 3 – Dylan Jurasin had a pair of hits and knocked in two runs…Marquette scored four runs in the final two innings…Jordan Bamber had three hits for Petoskey while Billy Hansen, Brian Loper, and Paul Cunningham had two hits each.