Houghton Building Supply-Stanton’s Levi Frahm hits against Garnet Garage on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, in Stanton Township, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

STANTON TOWNSHIP– It wasn’t pretty but the boys from Garnet Garage got the job down in their come-from-behind 6-4 win over Houghton Building Supply-Stanton on Tuesday.

It was Garnet’s second win on the season in as many games. However, it was HBS’s opener, and it felt like a first game riddled with jitters, said player-manager Daron Durocher.

“Our defense was shaky,” he said. “We had too many missed balls and bad throws. I don’t know if there was a legitimate RBI on either side of the field tonight. Neither team was too sharp.”

It was HBS who got on the scoreboard first. After a scoreless-first inning posted by both squads, HBS’s Sam Kiiskila took first base and made his way to second with a misplayed ball at third in the second. He would eventually score on a wild pitch. In a similar fashion in the third frame, HBS’s Gaborik Carlson put the ball in play off Garnet’s starter Chris Saari and made his way home on errors. In the fourth inning, Carter Nettel got on with a base hit up the middle and crossed home plon errant throws by the boys from Garnet.

It was a 3-0 HBS lead to start the fifth, but it was short lived as the Garnet’s bats came alive.

It was then that Garnet’s Chris Saari helped his own cause with a base hit off of HBS’s reliever Eli Louma who took over after Levi Frahm threw three scoreless innings. Right fielder John Bostwick followed with a single of his own. After a Will Romano strikeout, Justin Norkol knocked in Saari and Bostwick with a hard-hit ball to third that was overthrow. Later in the inning, Reed Heathman cleared the bases with a double to left center. He himself would come in on a Blake Julian base hit to make it a 5-3 Garnet lead.

“Finally, we were able to string some at-bats together and generate some runs,” said Garnet’s player-manager Kevin Bostwick.

While HBS was able to score one more in their half of the fifth, that is as good as it got for them, and it wouldn’t be enough. Garnet went on to score another run in the sixth thanks to base hits by Crouch and Norkol. Saari put HBS down in order for the complete-game win for him in the seventh.

“Hats off to Chris. He gave a great pitching performance as he kept the ball on the ground and did not allow a lot of hard-hit balls,” Bostwick said. “Yes, we need to work on fielding, but that will come with time.”

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