Garnet Garage wraps up Twilight season with first-place finish
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HOUGHTON -- The 2026 Twilight League regular season wrapped up Tuesday with Garnet Garage downing Houghton Building Supply/Stanton with an 8-7 win. With that win, Garnet Garage clinched the top spot in the five-team league with a 9-3 finish.
Houghton Building Supply ended the season 5-7 and in fourth place. Thursday, they played last place REL Inc./Mohawk Technology (4-8) for the fourth playoff seed, with the remainder of the playoffs beginning next week.
Tuesday’s finale began with some fireworks. Garnet’s Kade Farrell was the leadoff hitter, and took the third pitch deep and out of the park. It came off the hands of Stanton’s starter Brad Juntinen. It was 1-0 in favor of Garnet Garage.
However, it quickly became 3-0 as Mike Saari followed suit with a home run as well. With pitcher Eli Heathman on base with a double, Saari’s was a two-run blast to left center. It didn’t end there.
Will Romano doubled and scored as well to top off a four-run first frame.
Houghton Building Supply stayed in it with Zach Geborkoff scoring after a walk to make it a 4-1 game.
Both teams scored runs in the second and the third. Neither team scored in the fourth.
Garnet Garage led 6-3 after four innings. After five frames, the lead remained the same, but it was a 7-4 game at that point.
Garnet Garage’s run came off the bat of Mike Saari, who singled and was knocked in on a Chris Saari double.
Juntinen tallied Houghton Building Supply's fourth run after walking.
While Garnet Garage scored one in the sixth, Houghton Building Supply countered with two. A walk to leadoff hitter Joel Durocher and a hit-by-pitch to Geborkoff both led to runs.
Garnet Garage led 8-6 with one frame to play.
Houghton Building Supply did manage to score one more run in the seventh, but that was as close as they got.
"I like the way we started this one with those home runs," said Garnet Garage player-coach Kevin Bostwick. "It set the tone with the big at bats. We hit the ball hard tonight and put it in play. It is nice to be crowned season champs. We are ready for the playoffs."
Up next
This year’s Twilight League playoffs will take on a different format. Both the semifinal and championship games will be a best-of-three series. It will open on Tuesday with first-seeded Garnet Garage playing the winner of Houghton Building Supply and REL at Houghton. In Stanton, that same night, Coldwell Banker Craig Heinonen (the second seed) will face the third-seeded Northern Driveline. Both games will start at 6:30 p.m.