“It was a great game,” said Peltier’s manager Jesse Kentala. “Our bats came alive and, more importantly, we were sharp in the field. Poor fielding has been our nemesis, but tonight we fielded the ball and the made the routine plays. It was great to see.”

The boys from Peltier wasted no time in getting to work as they got on the scoreboard first in the top of the first. Jorren Rosola started the game off with a base hit. Todd Kilpela and Ethan Hainault both followed with hits of their own. Kilpela was the first run as he came in on a Hainault line drive to center.

In the bottom of the first, Tervo tied it with some strong baserunning. Kade Jenkins led off with a walk and eventually made it home on a wild pitch.

Tervo’s pitcher Logan Niemi shut down the opposition in the top of the second, and he and his team pulled ahead with a run in the bottom of the second to make the score 2-1.

Peltier’s hitters put the bat on the ball in the third as they had a big five-hit, three-run inning. Rosola and Kilpela started the rally off with their second singles of the day as did pitcher Latham Salmi.

Liam Tourtillot and Caleb Kentala also contributed to the hit parade to take a 4-2 lead.

Coach Kentala was quite pleased with Salmi’s performance on the mound.

“Latham was great. He threw strikes and he mixed his pitches and kept the other batters guessing,

The Tervo Agency came back with one run in their half of the third to make the score 4-3.

Peltier played excellent defense in the fourth and fifth inning as only seven batters came to the plate for six outs over those two frames. Kilpela, who came in as relief on the mound, was particularly sharp at the position as he had four balls hit back to the mound and got them all out at first.

Peltier also added one more run in the fifth and an impressive five runs in the sixth. Rosola started that inning off with a double off the fence in left field. Hainault and Tourtillot also had their second hits of the night and Laila brought them all in with a bases clearing three-run double. When it was all said and done it was 10-3.

Down to their last three outs, Tervo was not going down easily. In fact they put together a three-run rally thanks to hits by Niemi and Teegan Tapani. But it would not be enough as their season came to an end with a Kade Jenkins grounder to second.

“It was a great season as we finished 9-6 and we got better as the season continued,” said Tervo’s manager Anders Hill. “The kids were a fun group to coach and I was really proud of them.”

Next up for J. Peltier is Sayens Auto, the No.1 seeded team on Thursday.

COMMENTS