Black Sox upend Michigan Soo Travelers

The Soo Black Sox found a way to win on Tuesday evening as they faced the EUP Travelers.

Despite struggling to get on base against EUP starter Tim Robbins, the Black Sox managed to find a groove late en route to a 3-1 victory. A strong performance from Kyle Sayers on the mound for the Black Sox led the way for the locals in the win.

"I felt good out there," Sayers said. "The curve ball was working good. The fastball was alright. I couldn't hit the spots sometimes (with the fastball). Once I got into a groove I knew I was fine."

Black Sox coach Ryan Johns was pleased with the performance of Sayers on the mound. The veteran struck out 10 hitters in the win.

"Kyle did a great job for us," said Johns. "He hasn't had an opportunity to pitch a lot with us this summer yet. To come out today after not pitching in two or three weeks he did a great job for us."

At the plate, the Black Sox struggled early on and did not get their first hit until Sayers roped a triple in the fourth inning. With the no-hit bid by Robbins ended, the Black Sox managed to find somewhat of a groove. In the fifth inning, the locals scored a pair of runs with two outs to take a lead they would not relinquish.

"We started off slow," Johns said. "We didn't hit the ball out of the infield until about the fourth or fifth inning. The pitcher did a good job for them. He threw a lot of strikes and kept us out on our front foot."

EUP coach Greg Rambo was pleased with the pitching performance as well on a young Travelers club.

"Our pitcher pitched awesome," said Rambo. "I don't how many hits he gave up. We had a couple of plays that were tough at second base. I think the kids played hard and they competed really well. Sayers was throwing well. We got to him a little bit early. We had some more chances early with guys on base and I think that hurt us. We could have had a lead that would have calmed our guys down a little bit."

The Black Sox were scheduled to play a doubleheader against Alpena on Wednesday night locally but the games have been postponed until later in the summer. Due to a baseball camp in Alpena, the team would not have had enough players to field a team for the two games.

Next game action for the Black Sox will now be over the weekend when they hit the road into Michigan to play at the Gregg Johnson Memorial Tournament in Escanaba.

The eight-team tournament features teams from Michigan and Wisconsin. The Black Sox will play a doubleheader to open the tournament on Friday. The locals will face DePere in a 4 p.m. start and Green Bay Southwest. Both teams are from Wisconson.