Top Dawgs: Bulldogs earn trip to MSU for baseball semifinals

RUDYARD — A memorable day of baseball ended in a ’Dawg pile’ as Rudyard celebrated it’s berth in the state baseball semifinals Saturday.

The Bulldogs won two games on their home field to get through a Division 4 Super Regional. The Bulldogs defeated Maple City-Glen Lake 8-4 to win Regional 25, then followed up with a 9-3 triumph over Johannesburg-Lewiston in a quarterfinal at Lions Field. Rudyard (27-6-1) advances to play Riverview Gabriel Richard at Michigan State University’s McLane Stadium at 5 p.m. Thursday.

“I’m so happy,” Rudyard coach Billy Mitchell said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids. They work so hard and they deserve to have this experience.

“For those seniors to be able to cap off their careers and say they went to three Final Fours, that’s almost unheard of here in the U.P.”

Rudyard completed a ‘triple crown’ of sports accomplishments, reaching the Final Four in football, basketball and baseball during the past two seasons.

“It’s great to be able to play high school sports for another week with my brothers,” Rudyard senior EJ Suggitt said. “I wouldn’t trade that for the world. The team has put in a lot of work. We’re excited for the Final Four.”

Rudyard began its Saturday by beating the Glen Lake Lakers 8-4 in a rematch of last year’s regional final.

The Bulldogs grabbed the early lead, scoring two runs in the first inning and five more in the second for a 7-0 advantage. Rudyard didn’t need any more run support, and held off a late Laker rally.

Senior Brett Mayer earned the win, pitching 6 1-3 innings and allowing one run on four hits, while striking out eight and walking two. Tate Besteman, Cam Peterson and EJ Suggitt made relief appearances in the seventh inning to close out the game.

Leading the Rudyard offense, Landen Mayer finished 3-for-3 and scored twice, while Aiden Bickel was 2-for-3 and had a triple and scored two runs. Suggitt and Brett Mayer added two hits each, while Besteman had one hit.

“It was like a mirror image of last year’s game, except with a reverse outcome,” Mitchell said. “We weren’t surprised at all to see Glen Lake here again. They have a very good program and they’re so well-coached.”

A light rain started to fall as Rudyard played Johannesburg-Lewiston in the following quarterfinal game. The Bulldogs scored eight runs in the top of the sixth inning to come back from a 3-1 deficit and won it 9-3.

The Bulldogs took advantage of 12 walks issued by Jo’Burg pitchers, including six walks and one batter hit by a pitch in the sixth inning. The Cardinals used three more pitchers in relief while getting through the inning.

Suggitt pitched 5 2-3 innings for the win, allowing three runs on five hits, with 11 strikeouts and two walks. Kallen Lawlor came in to close it out, pitching 1 1-3 innings and he did not give up any runs on one run, while striking out two and three and walking none.

The Bulldogs recorded the final out as Lawlor fielded a ground ball and threw to Suggitt at first for to end the game. That set off a celebration where the Bulldogs all dove into a pile just off to the side of the pitcher’s mound.

“Today we did what we needed to do,” Mitchell said. “Some of our younger guys stepped up in big moments, like Kallen Lawlor coming in when we needed pitching and shutting the door on that last game. In the first game, Landen Mayer came up with some big hits.

“We didn’t have to rely on just EJ and Brett and the seniors. They played great as they always do, but we had contributions from the whole lineup.”

Suggitt helped his own cause by hitting a double and single, while Brett Mayer hit a double. Bickel, Cam Peterson, Austin Warner and Tanner Baker had one hit each.

Jo’Burg used four pitchers. Starter Preston Marlatt lasted five innings, allowing two runs on three hits, striking out six and walking six. Three more Cardinals’ players saw mound duty in the sixth inning, in which they allowed eight runs.

“We ran out of pitching,” Johannesburg-Lewiston coach Cody Proctor said. “We needed six more outs but we couldn’t hold it together at that point. After the starters were out, it was going to come down to which team could throw strikes and play defense. We just didn’t have it.”

The Bulldogs will be playing in the semifinals for the fourth time overall, and their first Final Four since 2015.

Johannesburg-Lewiston earned its spot in the quarterfinal by downing the Jeffers Jets 6-4 in the Division 4 Regional 26 final earlier Saturday.

The game was scoreless through four innings as Jets’ senior pitcher Dean Jurmu and the Cardinals’ Rily McVannel did not give up any runs.

The Cardinals broke through with five runs in the top of the fifth inning. Ed Burke drew a walk, while Thomas Fox and Preston Marlatt were both hit by pitches. Freshman Cody Turner made a relief pitching appearance, replacing Dean at that point, with the bases loaded.

The Cards’ followed with a 2-run double from McVannel and a 2-run single from Colin Basinski. Jo’Burg added another run to make it 5-0 after back to back singles from Rylan Rosso and Will Boden.

The Jets bounced back with four runs in their half of the fifth inning. With one out, Chase Kinnunen singled. After two outs, Simon Rajala drew a walk and Cody Turner hit a fly ball which the leftfielder’s dropped, scoring one run. Trevor Halonen also drew a walk and Levi Frahm drove in two runs with a single. The Jets added another run on a balk from McVannel to make it 5-4.

Jo’Burg added an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning, getting a RBI single to right field from McVannel.

McVannel shut down the Jets 1-2-3 in the sixth and allowed just one baserunner in the seventh while closing out the game. His final pitching stats included allowing four hits over seven innings, while striking out seven and walking two.

“I didn’t know anything about those guys going in,”  coach Proctor said. “I had to dig deep into my phone contacts to find people that may have a little intel. Fortunately everything I got was right. I was told they were going to play solid baseball, make the plays defensively, and they did. We happened to get the hits when it mattered.

“I have to say I was impressed with Painesdale-Jeffers. I heard they were hardly on the field until May due to the weather in the Western U.P. So to pull things together in that short amount of time, and to get to this point in the tournament, hat’s off to them.”

Dean pitched into the fifth inning and allowed three runs on two hits, while striking out three, walking two, and beaning three. Turner was charged with allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out four over three innings.

The Jets, who won their first district title this season, finished 19-4.

“We didn’t get the bats rolling early enough,” Jeffers coach Luke Paul said. “We missed an opportunity to get one of the board early. Their pitcher kept us off balance the whole game, we had a tough time barreling up the ball, so credit to him. It’s part of baseball, one day you’re hot and the next day you are cold.”

Contact Sports Editor Rob Roos at rroos@sooeveningnews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @rroosTEN.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Bulldogs earn trip to MSU for baseball semifinals