Pinny adds its 26th straight district championship trophy to the case after Saturday's tournament win.
Linda Eyer
Candace Sequin threw a two-hitter and struck out 12 in Saturday's district championship victory over Gladwin.

PINCONNING - June 2, 2007 - Winning a Division 2 District 35 softball championship in Pinconning may not be a new thing. The Spartans know they can't taking anything for granted, even after taking their 26th straight such title on Saturday -- the other 25 don't do much to help reach this year's regional tournament, where Pinny will try to earn a little payback against the Cadillac team that eliminated the Spartans last year.

"I thought our approach was good," said Pinny coach Tim Hoffman. "We knew we would have to adapt to a different style of pitching than we've seen lately against teams like Freeland, Coleman and USA and I thought we did that. I'm very happy with how we played."

Pinny took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Paige Little's two-run single that scored Lauren Lahar and Ashley Mrozinski. If that weren't enough (and it was, with the way Candace Sequin pitched), Samantha Bellhorn hit a pair of two-run home runs to put the game out of reach.

Sequin tossed a two-hitter, walking one and striking out 12 to earn the win.

Hoffman said the Spartans are looking forward to a rematch with Cadillac.

"I think that's a good thing," he said. "We definitely were hoping to see them again because we didn't perform well against them last year. We don't know much about them at this point, but hopefully we can take care of business.

"It's usually a pretty tough region. Usually if we can get past regionals we have a good shot in the quarterfinal game. But we have to take care of business against Cadillac first."

The Spartans (26-11) will player their regional semifinal game at approximately noon at Gaylord on Saturday, June 9.

 

Semifinal: Gladwin 5, Ogemaw Heights 0

Ogemaw Heights saw its season come to an end in a 5-0 loss to Gladwin as the Flying G's Alysia Bushong tossed a two-hit shutout at the Falcons.

Ogemaw's best chance to score came in the first when Kelly Rosebrugh got on base on a lead-off error, but was left stranded at third.

Teresa Wymer had a single in the second inning and Jamie Lucas had a hit in the sixth.

The Falcons finished the season with a 16-17 record.

 

Semifinal: Pinconning 11, Houghton Lake 1

Pinconning reached the district title game with an 11-1, six-inning mercy-rule victory over Houghton Lake.

Candace Sequin opened the game with three no-hit innings of pitching and Taylor Beck allowed one hit and one earned run over the final three innings as the Bobcats could get little going on offense.

The Spartans put three runs on the board in the first, added two in the third and four in the fourth to take a commanding 9-0 lead.

Sam Bellhorn had three hits, including a double, scored a run and had an RBI; Lauren Lahar had two hits and two RBIs; Kelsey Beck scored four runs; Sequin had two hits and an RBI; and Alicia Bishop had a hit and scored twice.