The Howard Township All-Stars captured the Cal Ripken Baseball Michigan State Tournament championship with an 8-2 win over rival Brandywine. Pictured from left are: Archer Jankoviak, Logan Cox, Sam Rucker, Paulie Hess, Gage Vota, Alex Cole, Jaxon Seddon, Rick Morrison, Robbie Dillard, Brenden Olsen, Drew Deming, Lincoln Bockaj and not pictured Brody Schimpal back: coaches Christopher Seddon, Paul Hess, Rick Morrison and Devon Moore. (Submitted photo)

The Howard Township 8-year-old All-Stars captured the Michigan Cal Ripken Baseball state title last weekend at Janowski Park in Milford.

Howard Township defeated rival Brandywine 8-2 in the championship game of the machine pitched tournament.

The all-stars came out of Division B, which was made up of Howard Township, L’Anse Creuse, Clinton Valley Grey and Huron Valley Rebels.

Brandywine advanced out of Division A, which consisted of Alpena, Clinton Valley Blue and Huron Valley Maroon.

Howard Township opened up tournament play July 18 by defeating L’Anse Creuse 4-1. After giving up an inside-the-park home run, Howard shut down Creuse’s offense and held on for the victory.

In the morning game on Saturday, Howard Township blanked the Clinton Valley Grey 11-0, allowing just one hit.

The second game against Huron Valley was nearly a carbon copy of the morning contest as Howard blanked the Rebels 13-0 on one hit.

The victory gave Howard Township the top seed heading into the championship round.

Howard Township, despite the loss of two players, defeated Alpena in the semifinals 4-3, rallying from a 3-0 second inning deficit.

Brandywine, the top seed in Division A, advanced to the championship game with an 11-8 win over L’Anse Creuse.

The finals were setting up to be a battle of complete opposites as Brandywine was close to setting a tournament record for the most runs scored, while Howard Township was close to setting the record for fewest runs allowed.

Something had to give.

Defense prevailed with Howard Township holding Brandywine’s all-stars to just two runs to win the championship.

Top players for Howard Township were Brody Schimpa, Gage Vota, Robbie Dillard, Logan Cox, Lincoln Bockaj and Drew Deming.

Howard set the record for fewest runs allowed in the state tournament with six in five games. The team held its opponents to a .281 batting average.

Other top players for the all-stars were Jaxon Seddon, Archer Jankoviak, Rick Morrison, Paulie Hess,  Alex Cole, Brenden Olsen and Sam Rucker.