Late Surge by Midland Costs Madison Dearly
- Aug 8, 2015
- 2 min read
For a while on Friday night, it seemed like the Madison Impact were on the cusp of becoming strong favorites to win the American Legion Great Lakes Regional. As it turned out, their opponents from Midland, Michigan had other ideas.
The Impact faced Midland in a matchup of the only two teams that were 2-0 at the regional. The winner of the game was guaranteed a spot in the regional final. By extension, that means the winner was going to play outright for a berth in the American Legion World Series. Midland is the defending champion of the regional, and they made themselves the favorite to win it again this year with a 10-4 victory over the Impact on Friday.
Things looked great for Madison early on in the contest. They scored two runs in both the 2nd and 3rd innings to take a 4-0 lead. Kigen Mares hit a 2 RBI double and Mike Brekke singled in two runs to do the damage for the Impact.
Mitch Weber kept Midland’s bats quiet for the majority of the game. In seven innings of work he allowed just two runs on nine hits. He had a shutout going for the first six innings, but Midland’s perseverance paid off in the final three innings.
The champions of Michigan exploded for 10 runs in the final three innings to crush Madison’s chances of going 3-0 in the regional. They scored a single run in the 7th, five runs in the 8th, and four runs in the 9th to complete the comeback.
Madison will play Elgin, Illinois in an elimination game on Saturday afternoon. Should they win that contest, they would face the winner of the game between Midland and Alton (Illinois). If they are to win the regional, they will need to beat Midland at least once.
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