SSC pitcher Barbara Filipeck (right) and catcher Samantha McQuarter celebrate after the Panthers' 1-0 victory over Tawas kept them alive in the NEMC title chase. Tawas came back to deny the Panthers a share of the championship with a 5-2 win in the nightcap.
Brent Baker
Lyndsey Look hangs on to a pop fly behind first base at Standish-Sterling on Monday.

STANDISH-STERLING - May 12, 2008 - Standish-Sterling needed a sweep of Tawas Area on Monday to earn a share of its first NEMC title since the mid 1980s.

Tawas might have been in the situation, but after confirmation from the MHSAA that they had to force one of two wins against Whittemore-Prescott in the season's first doubleheader due to the use of an ineligible player, already knew its title chances were done. A sweep by the Braves would have at least given them the right to claim they'd done enough on the field to claim a share of the title.

The big winner turned out to be Pinconning, which after the  Panthers and Braves split their two games, laid sole claim to its 22nd straight league title.

SSC scratched out a 1-0 victory to keep its title hopes alive in the opener, but the Braves took an early lead in the second game and held on for a 5-2 victory to spoil the Panthers' hopes.

A championship "would have been nice," said SSC coach Carolyn Barnum. "But we didn't hit enough. A lot of that had to do with (Tawas pitcher) Nikki Stein, but it's hard to win when you don't hit."

There wasn't much offense at all in the first game as the teams traded gooseggs on the scoreboard into the sixth inning.

SSC bunched together three of its five hits in that inning, but scored on a ball that went all of five feet.

Kayla Hilyard led the inning off by lacing a triple to the center field fence, and with one out scored on Samantha McQuarter's sacrifice bunt.

Barbara Filipeck and Olivia Picard followed with singles, but Stein ended the inning with a strikeout to keep the Braves alive.

Christie Cooper led off the Braves' final inning with a single and stole second, but Filipeck, who matched Stein with 12 strikeouts in the game, whiffed the final three batters to end it.

Filipeck allowed three hits to Stein's five, while neither pitcher walked a batter in the opener.

Tawas jumped on top right away in the second game as Michelle Revord tripled and scored on Katie LaHaye's sacrifice bunt.

The Braves got all the runs they needed in the second with a bit of help from the Panthers, who bunched together several errors while Tawas was able to execute some small-ball offense. Cooper's leadoff double got the ball rolling; an error put two on base with none out; Cooper scored on a passed ball off of a strikeout; Courtney McKenzie was safe on an attempted sacrifice, as was Cassie Bush.

By the time Revord capped the inning with a sacrifice fly, Tawas led 4-0.

The Panthers got single runs in the second and fifth innings, but Stein finished strong to close out the win. Stein finished with a four-hitter -- including two doubles by Olivia Picard -- walked one and struck out five.

Filipeck took the loss, giving up two earned runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out four.

McKenzie had three hits, including two doubles, Lyndsey Look had two hits and LaHaye had two RBIs.

Tawas (15-9) finished third in the NEMC with a 7-5 record, one game behind SSC. The top six teams in the league finished separated by just three games.

SSC (16-10, 8-4) finshed a game back of Pinconning.

"I think we did better than we thought we would coming into the season," Barnum said. "We'll see how things go once we get to districts."