Gaylord Blue Devil baseball & softball vs Alpena Wildcats

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The Gaylord Blue Devil varsity baseball and softball teams hosted doubleheaders today vs the Alpena Wildcats in Big North Conference action.  In baseball, the Blue Devils dropped the 1st game by a 11-4 score, and the 2nd game was a 15-0 washout after 4-innings, as the Blue Devils remain winless on the season.  The Lady Devils lost the 2nd game of their double header 13-3, and I am unsure how the first game finished.  I believe Gaylord is scheduled to play next vs. Grayling at home on Thursday.

Gaylord JV softball vs Traverse City Central

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The Gaylord Blue Devil jv girls softball team hosted the Traverse City Central Trojans for a pair of games Wednesday night at Gaylord High School, and the visiting Trojans took both ends of the double header on a beautiful evening for softball.  The Trojans took the first game by a 13-1 score in 5-innings, and lead 16-5 in the 2nd game in the 4th inning, the point where I left the game.  The Gaylord girls struggled at times in these games, but learning on the fly as most of the practice time has been indoors until this past week.  Another month to go int he season to improve each time they take the field :)

Gaylord Blue Devil baseball & softball

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The Gaylord Blue Devil varsity baseball and softball teams traveled to Boyne City for Saturday tournaments, with mixed results.  The girls softball team finished in 2nd place, while the boys team dropped a 7-3 decision to Cheboygan and a 3-2 loss to Central Lake in extra-innings.  I only saw the girls first game, a 9-8 win over Boyne City in a exciting game.   Snapped a few photos, but spent more time watching on this day, so I will capture these teams a bit more in the future....weather permitting :)

Gaylord 1 Alpena 0 girls High School soccer

#11 Madison Hamila reacts after scoring the only goal in Gaylord's 1-0 win over Alpena.

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The Gaylord Blue Devil girls varsity soccer team hosted the Alpena Wildcats Friday night at the Gaylord Intermediate School, and it took about 71-minutes to score the 1st and only goal of the game in a 1-0 Big North Conference win over the Wildcats.  Gaylord dominated play the whole game, with the action tilted towards the Alpena goal, but were unable to take control of this game until #11 Madison Hamilla was able to head a ball in off a kick by #13 Sarah Polena past the Wildcat netminder, and the Blue Devils killed off the last minutes to win this game.  It has been about a 5-week break between seasons for me, as Mother Nature has been unkind to the spring sports, but felt good to get back out to photograph the action.

#2 Megan Martin waits for a Gaylord corner kick.

Gaylord's #8 Brooke Stier

Blue Devil #21 Kaylor Mikolowski

Gaylord's #13 Sarah Polena

Blue Devil #22 Rebecca Pensyl

Negaunee 56 - Glen Lake 55 boys Quarterfinal basketball

Miner #14 Tyler Jandron

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A Class C Quarterfinal basketball game took place at the Jim Mongeau Gym Tuesday night at Gaylord High School, as the Negaunee Miners squeaked by the Glen Lake Lakers, 56-55 to earn a berth in the Class C final four at Breslin Arena on the campus of Michigan State University.  What a great basketball game this was, as the gym was packed with very loud fan bases, and this game would give everyone the worth of the $6 ticket, and more as it came right down to the wire with the last shot being taken with 0.7 seconds remaining.  This was close at each quarter break, 15-15 at the end of the 1st.  28-26 at the half in favor of Negaunee. 40-39 at the end of the 3rd with the Miners up by the 1-point, and the 56-55 final.  The crazy gap came in the 3rd quarter, as the Miners broke out early going on a run, and a 38-27 11-point lead, but at the end of the quarter, the Lakers would outscore Negaunee 12-2 to close the gap to 1-point.  Down by 3 with 15-seconds remaining, the Lakers got a good 3-point look, but missed the shot, grabbed the rebound and score 2-points with 2 seconds remaining.  The Miners missed both free throws on the next possession, and the Lakers got off a 3/4 court shot with 0.7 remaining that fell short, along with their dreams of reaching the final four.  This was another game that makes high school sports a great event.

#30 Laker Mike O'Brien with a rebound

A contested Laker shot by the Miner defense

The Glen Lake 3-point attempt from #32 Carter Lee that did not hit its mark
with about 7-seconds left, but he would get the rebound to score a basket
cutting the Miner lead to 1-point with 2 seconds to play.

#32 Laker Carter Lee during starter introductions

Miner Tyler Jandron caught under the basket looking to pass

Cadillac 60 - Grayling 41 boys basketball Regional FInal

Batle for a rebound in the Cadillac/Grayling Regional Final game.

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A Class B Regional Final basketball game was played in Grayling on Wednesday night between the Vikings, both Cadillac and Grayling,  The Grayling Vikings had the fortune to have a home court advantage, but it was the Vikings from the south who pulled away late in the 4th-Quarter for a 60-41 win to advance to next weeks Quarterfinal game at Houghton Lake.  Grayling who was down by 16-18 points in the 3rd-quarter, went on a mini run to cut the Cadillac lead to 9-points, and had a possession to cut it to 7, but as happened all night long, they missed many close in shots.  That, along with 20+ turnovers in the game spelled the end for the Grayling season at 19-6.  Cadillac (20-4) will continue on with a chance to win a final four berth at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University next week.

Cadillac #3 Nick Paquet

Grayling's #4 Justice Junttila

Cadillac's #2 Jalen Brooks

Grayling's #1 Tyler McClanahan

Muskegon 53 - Marquette 49 boys Regional basketball

Muskegon #1 Deshaun Thrower and Marquettes #42 Mark Pap

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A Class A Regional semi-final basketball game was played at the Jim Mongeau gym at Gaylord High School Monday night, as it was about the half-way point between Muskegon and Marquette, who squared off in a great game, that was won by the Big Reds of Muskegon 53-49.  The 1st quarter got off to a slow start, with less than 3-minutes remaining, Muskegon held a 2-1 lead, but the quarter would finish with Marquette on top 7-4.  Muskegon would dominate the 2nd quarter, outscoring the Redmen 15-6 to take a 6-point lead into the locker-room at 19-13.  At the start od the 3rd quarter, Marquette would net the first 6-points to tie it up at 19-19, and the rest of the way, the lead was never more than 5-points in this contest.  Late in the game, Muskegon led 48-46, and Marquette had to foul.....and Muskegon would do a nice job of hitting freethrows down the stretch.  The score at 50-46, Marquette was called with the strangest foul of the game, as #42 Mark Pap had position on the block, and with the ball spun to the basket, and was called for an offensive foul, his 5th to foul out of the game with around 20-seconds left.  Just a crazy call in a game where the officials let alot of hand checking, and body pushing down low the whole game, and then to call a foul at such an important stage of the game was very odd.  I can only guess he called Pap for hooking, but I really did not see that at all.  Muskegon would hit the free throws making it a 6-point game, pretty much ending the contest.  Marquette would hit a 3-pointer with 4-seconds left, but one Big Red free throw sealed the game at 53-49.  This was an entertaining game...close the whole way.

Fighting for rebounds all game long

Pap gets an over-the-back call on this one, but Big Red #0 D'Vonte Dockery
was pushing backwards as well.....tough call for officials.

Marquette #53 A.J. Grazulis with a hook over Big Reds #21 Deyonta Davis.

Muskegon #5 Joeviair Kennedy

Muskegon's #21 Davis with one of his many blocks on the evening,
here against Marquette's #20 Connor Brazeau.