Jeffers freshman pitcher Cody Turner throws against Johannesburg-Lewiston in a Division 4 regional championship game Saturday, June 11, 2022, in Rudyard, Mich. Johannesburg-Lewiston defeated the Jets, 6-4. (Rob Roos/Sault News)

RUDYARD — Jeffers stayed close but couldn’t come up with enough timely hitting to rally back in its first baseball regional championship game in program history Saturday.

Johannesburg-Lewiston downed the Jets 6-4 in the Division 4 Region 25 final at Rudyard High School’s Lions Field.

“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.”

Earlier Saturday, Rudyard downed Maple City-Glen Lake 8-4 in the Region 26 championship game. Following their regional championship and quarterfinal wins, the Bulldogs advance to play Riverview Gabriel Richard at Michigan State University at 5 p.m. Thursday.

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,” Johannesburg-Lewiston coach Cody 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 were really hoping to get that No. 20 in the books,” Paul said. “Dean pitched well and kept us in it. We had our opportunities. Cody is a freshman and he came into the game in a tough position with the bases loaded. He threw strikes and made them hit the ball. We got within one run, and we still had two innings to get more runs but we just couldn’t find them.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys. We had to overcome a lot of snow, which kept us in the gym a long time. I know they are upset now, but they are going to look back and know we had a great season.”

Johannesburg-Lewiston went on to play Rudyard in a quarterfinal and lost 9-3 against the host Bulldogs.

“We weren’t supposed to win districts, we weren’t supposed to win the regional and nobody thought we’d be in the quarterfinal,” Proctor said. “We started playing well at the right time, got to play a lot of extra baseball, and had a good run. In the end we lost against Rudyard, one of the better teams in the state in Division 4, but we gave them a run for their money.”