Edsel, DHS Bow Out of Baseball Tourney

Allen Park High, the host school for Saturday afternoon's district baseball action, took care of both Dearborn squads, beating in the semifinals, 9-5, then ousting the Thunderbirds in the title game, 16-2, in five innings.

"You have to give them credit," Edsel coach Rob Fay said. "They played well."

The Thunderbirds' struggles in the championship game started from the first inning on, when the squad surrendered four runs, only to give up another five to the Jags in the second inning.

"We had trouble getting the ball over the plate," Fay said. "Then, you get down like that early on and that makes it even tougher."

Edsel did anything but roll over to Allen Park, despite trailing 11-0 after two-and-a-half innings.

Instead, the T-Birds rallied for a pair of runs in the third inning, but simply couldn't push any more runs across the plate after that. The Jags tacked on five more runs in the fourth inning, moving the margin to, 16-2–a mark that would hold for the remainder of the contest.

"We had a good season," Fay said. "We had hoped to play better in this game, but it didn't work out that way this time."

There very well might be a next time for the Thunderbirds, who are a young team. And, despite this fact, the team did wrap up the 2011 campaign 18-12 overall.

"We are a young team," Fay said. "And you hope this experience will show these guys that it takes a lot of hard work in the offseason to be a good baseball team. You have to put in the work."

Edsel earned a spot in the final thanks to a 14-4 thumping of Lincoln Park in the semifinal earlier Saturday.

The Pioneers also fell to Allen Park, winding up on the wrong side of a 9-5 outcome.

A five-run first inning for the Jags dug a hole simply too deep for DHS to climb out of, Pioneers coach, Matt Schleif says.

"We dug ourselves a hole and it wound up being too much for us," Schleif said. "We kept battling though."

This was indicative of the entire season for the Pioneers, Schleif says.

"Unfortunately, it seems like we were behind a lot this season," Schleif said. "But we always battled and gave it everything we had to get back. Sometimes it was enough, sometimes, like today, it wasn't. I hope the gravity of this game sinks in with the younger players though. I hope they realize the situation they're in when it's the state playoffs. It's a big deal, districts are a big deal."

DHS wrapped up the season 8-12 overall.

Division 2

won a district title and advanced to the regional tournament at Livonia Ladywood on June 11.