Both games were characterized by big innings that set the tone.

In the first contest, the second inning for Houghton was the lynch pin as they scored eight after already posting two in the first. The team in red went through the lineup in that frame with everyone getting a hit except for two players.

“It was good to get on the board early, and then we hit the ball well in the second,” said player-coach Jim Perron. “Ten runs gave us a bit of a cushion, and we could relax a little going forward.”

While the Tapiola squad scored five in the fourth and two in the sixth, it wasn’t for lack of strong defense by Houghton.

Baraga County’s Mitch Lake swings away on Monday in an Over 50 softball playoff game against South Range in Tapiola. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

It was a case of Tapiola hitting the ball where Houghton wasn’t.

“We started off cold, and then things picked up in the fourth,” said Tapiola’s player-coach Roy Duquette. “We just could not keep things going. As well, we had a few too many errors, and you cannot have that with a good team like Houghton.”

In the nightcap, the third inning proved to be the big one for Baraga County in their match up against South Range. In that frame, they went through the line up twice with five players scoring twice in a 14-run tally.

The name of the game was small ball as singles dominated the scorebook as opposed to extra-base hits for Baraga.

“That big inning set the tone for the rest of the game,” stated Baraga’s player-coach Nick Koszykowski. “Add to that good defense, and Mitch (Lake) pitched well. He throws strikes and did not walk anybody.”

While Lake threw strikes, his men behind him backed him up. Baraga had a shutout headed into the sixth, but South Range broke the ice with seven runs in the inning. All those runs scored with just one out. However, that is as good as it got for South Range as they left a man on base in the seventh and flew out to short to end the game.

Baraga added three more runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth for a 23-7 win.

UP NEXT

South Range’s loss was their second of the postseason, and they are out of this league’s double-elimination tournament. Meanwhile Tapiola and Baraga sit at 1-1 and will play each other on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Tapiola. The winner of that game will face Houghton for the championship on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Tapiola for the championship game.