First Blake Mann was up to bat, but the lefty went down swinging to Redhawks’ closer Lance Zobel, who had replaced freshman Aaron Snider for the final out in the sixth inning.

Logan Mann was next up for the Comets, but he hit into a fielders choice groundout that was nearly a double play.

It was all on the shoulders of Jack Garber, but the Comets junior also went down swinging to a Zobel pitch, and North Tama came away as the champions of the BCLUW Memorial Day Tournament, winning 9-6 in the championship showdown.

“It was a fun game and the kids were playing enthused,” Redhawks head coach Dan Kopriva said. “I am just surprised with the way we are hitting the ball, a lot of these guys struggled hitting last year and at least through the early games they are hitting well now, so hopefully that continues.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Not only did North Tama (4-1) hit the ball well, they also had a good showing on the mound by Snider for the first 5 2/3 innings. Snider had things get a little sideways in the first inning, allowing the Comets (2-3) to knock in four runs in the top of the first, but he only let by two more runs until being pulled in the sixth due to pitch count.

“We expected him to get hit around a little bit and we were going to have to play defense,” Kopriva said of Snider. “They were hitting everything to the fence that first inning and I thought ‘oh boy’ and I about took him out of there but we were just way low on pitching and had no one. To be honest I was hoping for a split today, but Aaron surprised me.”

Snider finished four strikeouts in his first varsity start while allowing six earned runs and nine hits. He wasn’t the only Redhawk newcomer who impressed, however, as eighth-grader Gabe Kopriva knocked in four runs on the day with a double and a triple.

“They brought the outfield in on him, and I probably would have done the same, but then he just got hold of one,” coach Kopriva said of Gabe’s triple. “It might have been routine had they played back. Being an eighth-grader, he is one of the many guys, maybe the guy who surprises me the most on hitting.”

The Redhawks made it into the final game with a 17-6 victory over Twin Cedars in the first round, giving them a 2-0 mark on the day.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“When you can come in a tournament and win two games, your record starts to look a little nicer,” Kopriva said. “You’ll take a split but when you can get a few more games above .500, that’s nice.”

By no means did the Comets have a bad day either, as they still ended with nine hits and six runs in the loss, as well as an 11-0 win over GMG prior in the day. BCLUW head coach Matt Zoske said as much after the loss to the Redhawks.

“We hit the ball hard and we hit the ball hard at them, and they made a lot of nice plays,” he said. “They have a lot of nice players, they don’t have any holes in their lineup on defense especially, and they made a lot of nice defensive plays. Caught a lot of deep balls, caught some line drives that we hit, so I certainly can’t fault our effort at the plate.

“I really thought we played well and I thought North Tama played well, and they got us. Somebody obviously has to win and somebody has to lose.”

Koty Kruse pitched recovered well after a bad start in the championship game. After letting in six runs in the first inning, he didn’t let a North Tama player cross the plate until the fourth inning, after the Comets had tied things up at 6-6. He finished going 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs on six hits and five walks while striking out four. Kruse also had a single and a double with two runs scored for BCLUW, while Troy Dolphin also had a single and a double with two RBIs and Brad Barkema went 2-for-4 with a run.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

GMG finished 0-2 on the day, falling to the Comets in the first matchup then losing to Twin Cedars in the consolation match, 11-1. Wolverines head coach Jon Dieken said what he wanted to see from his young team in this tournament was some valuable time on the diamond.

“We don’t have any seniors, so we have shifted some guys around into positions that they don’t normally play,” Dieken said. “Today we had some pitchers that haven’t thrown varsity innings yet, just kind of gaining that experience that will hopefully pay off later in the year.”

GMG (0-4) has an Iowa Star Conference South Division showdown today with North Tama, while BCLUW starts its NICL West Division schedule with a home game against East Marshall on Wednesday.