By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
MISHAWAKA, Ind. – It was less then stellar defensive performance by each team playing in the Indiana West versus Michigan Sports Fest baseball game Tuesday afternoon.
With the wealth of talent each team has to chose from the outcome was any ones guess. Tuesday game was any ones guess who would make the play that would give their team the right to play later in the week.
In the end, when the final out was made it would be Michigan moving on to Thursday's championship game as it held off Indiana West for a 11-10 win.
Michigan will go on to face the Metro All-Stars on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Jenkins Stadium on the campus of Bethel College in Mishawaka.
Michigan looked to have the game wrapped up as they opened up an 11-5 lead in the fifth.
Indiana West bounced back and rallied for five runs in the sixth on just two hits. The rally had the help of three wild pitches and two Michigan errors.
In the end, it was Lakeshore's Nick Wheeler coming in relief in the top of the seventh to shut down the West team on a ground ball out and ending the game with a pair of strike outs for the save.
"You know your going to get strikes when he (Wheeler) is going out and he is going to compete and that is why they (Lakeshore) were in the state semifinals," Michigan All-Star coach from Niles Mike Vota said of Weller shutting down Indiana in the seventh. "A kid like that threw real well and we'll be coming back with him on Thursday. We'll put him out their and see what happens."
Dowagiac's Jake Cox took over for starting pitcher Jake Harris of Brandywine in the fifth for the win. Harris pitched four innings striking out three.
Harris was joined by Bobcat teammates Noah Udell and Cameron Ondresky each picking up a single in the game with Harris picking up an RBI on his hit.
Michigan knocked out 14 hits in the contest.
Indiana West took a 3-0 lead in the second and Michigan tied the game in the bottom half of the inning pushing three runs across.
Michigan tacked on another run in the third for a 4-3 lead after three innings.
Three hits in the top of the fourth led by a 2-run home run by Knox's Coty Majchrzak gave Indiana a short lived 5-4 advantage.
In the bottom of the fourth, Dowagiac's Jamie Simpson played long ball and cracked a two-run shot to hand the lead back to Michigan. Simpson finished the day 2-for-4 at the plate.
Niles' Zach Bloss came through in the fifth with a two-out bases loaded triple his second hit of the day to boost the lead to 11-5.
Little did anyone know at that time that would prove to be the game winning hit and keep the Michigan All-Stars alive at Sports Fest 2008.
"We hit the ball real well, and we have a lot of speed on this team. I feel like a little kid in a candy store with so many things to choose from on this team," Vota said.
Vota will get that chance on Thursday to visit that candy store in an effort to give the Michigan All-Stars a Sports Fest 2008 championship.