By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
Eastwood held off a late rally, while West Branch rallied from an early three-run deficit to advance to the championship semifinals of the Michigan Senior Baseball State Tournament held at Russom Fields in Dowagiac Saturday night.
Eastwood…4
Harper Woods…3
Eastwood advanced to the championship semifinals on Monday with a 4-3 victory over Harper Woods Saturday afternoon at Russom Fields.
Eastwood will face Grand Rapids Southern Monday afternoon at 3 in the semifinals. The winner advances to Tuesday's Michigan Senior Baseball championship game set for 3 p.m.
Eastwood scored a run in the first, two runs in the second inning and a run in the third to open up a 4-1 lead.
Harper Wood, which scored a run in the bottom of the first, scored single runs in the fifth and seventh innings to make things interesting for Eastwood.
In fact, Harper Wood's final run scored on a double that just missed being a game-tying home run by about a foot.
David Oliphant went the distance and recorded the victory for Eastwood.
Adam Hanson had a triple and Chazarae Johnson added a double.
Eastwood finished with seven hits, including singles by Ryan Buder, Brandon Rickstad, Ryan Mayne, Josh Martin and Jeremy Followell.
Frank Ferretti took the loss for Harper Woods, which will now take on Dowagiac in the consolation quarterfinals at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Blake Smith had a double and a single for Haper Woods, which finished with six hits. Tim Tibaudo added a double while Ferretti, Philip Dilone and Jason Mallouf all had singles.
Game 6
Eastwood 121 000 0 - 4 7 0
Harper Woods 010 001 1 - 3 6 0
David Oliphant (W), Frank Ferretti (L)
2B: Johnson (E), Smith (HW), Tibaudo (HW)
3B: Hanson (E)
West Branch…7
Southern…5
Grand Rapids Southern led 3-0 after an inning of play Saturday night, however, West Branch scored seven runs over the final three innings to pull out the victory.
Rick Dodridge after a shakey start settled down and kept the Southern bats in check until the bottom of the seventh.
Trailing 7-3, Grand Rapids rallied for two runs in the seventh, but Dodridge shut them down to preserve the victory.
Matt Faiman had a double and a triple to lead West Branch, which finished with six hits.
Dodridge helped his own cause with a home run. Curtis Lyons added a double.
Zach Lewis took the loss for Southern, which allowed six hits. Grand Rapids committed four errors in the contest.
Lewis had three hits including a pair of doubles. Chris Feys also had a double for Grand Rapids, which will face Midland at noon on Sunday.
The championship semifinal will be played on Monday afternoon at 3. The winner advances to Tuesday's championship game.