Fair Baseball: Frenchtown, Ash-Carleton move into winners' bracket finals

Frenchtown will play Tuesday in the winners' bracket finals of the 62nd annual Monroe County Fair Baseball Tournament.

The question will be whether or not head coach Mike Barton will be welcomed back to the dugout for the game.

Barton missed the first two games of the tournament because his son was playing in a basketball tournament.

Frenchtown has done very well without its boss.

The team followed Saturday's win over Dundee with an impressive 13-1 victory over Summerfield Sunday.

Vince Burkmier is filling in as head coach.

“I don't know,” joked Burkmier when asked about Barton's return. “The parents don't want him back. All we do is win with me.”

Ash-Carleton joined Frenchtown as the last two unbeaten teams in the tournament after beating Ida Blue 11-4 Sunday.

“Frenchtown is a very good team,” said Ash-Carleton coach Jeff Kemp. “They hit the ball and have very good pitching.”

Ash-Carleton 11, Ida Blue 4

The grounds crew for the Fair diamond did a remarkable job getting the field ready just six minutes after the scheduled starting time following torrential rain Sunday morning.

And it only took a few minutes after that for Ash-Carleton to take command, scoring eight runs in the first inning.

“We had a really good first inning,” Kemp said. “Our batters were hot. Then the pitching and defense kind of took over against a good Ida team.”

Triples by Kaden Appel and Ayden Currie keyed the big first inning. Tate Kull, Landen Pitock, Jeffrey Kemp, Sam Geiger and Reed Omler also had hits in that frame.

Kull, Pitock, Kemp, Omler and Curie finished with two hits each.

Appel gave up one run over first two innings and Luke Hedges yielded two hits and no runs in the fifth and sixth.

Brayden Chapman went 2-for-2 and scored a run to lead Ida Blue.

Frenchtown 13, Summerfield 1

Frenchtown unleashed a 15-hit attack and scored in every inning.

“We swing the bats,” Burkmier said. “We just hit. We hit the snot out of the ball today. We don't want to walk or strike out.”

Brayden Burkmier and Caleb Henry hit home runs and Burkmier also doubled.

Grant Pfeiffer, Nick Miller, Jayden Hopper, Zeke Boggs, and Brady Cannatella finished with two hits each.

Burkmier and Henry combined on a one-hitter in the four-inning, mercy-rule game.

Conor Harrrigan had the lone hit for Summerfield, which will play at 6:15 Monday.

Mason 9, Monroe 6

Monroe led 5-3 before Mason rallied for four runs in the bottom of the third and one each in the fourth and fifth.

“We cleaned up a few things from yesterday,” said Mason coach Tanner Herrera, whose team fell to Ash-Carleton Saturday. “I told them to just keep swinging. If we're up 10 or down 10, we have the same energy.”

T.J. Langenderfer had a big game for Mason, driving in runs with a triple and a double and pitching two strong innings.

Cole Cousino also ripped an RBI triple and Jared Tunison and Parker Williams each scored twice for Mason, which plays Ida Blue at 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Josh Frankel doubled twice for Monroe. The second one drove in two runs.

Blake Sroka went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and scored twice and Quintin Kaczmarek and Gage Ripee drove in runs.

Ida Blue 25, Dundee 2

Ida Gold scored at least four runs in all four innings, including 11 runs in the fourth.

Logan Hennessey led the way with three hits, including an RBI single. He drove in two runs and scored two.

Parker Mason drove in five runs, including three on a bases-loaded double.

Brody Lehr, Kade Uhl. Bryce Maddux, Sam Branjord and Jacob Costello scored three times apiece and Mason, Uhl and Maddux each had a pair of hits.

"We came much more ready today," said Ida Blue coach Eric Mason, whose team fell to Ida Gold in the opening round. "Today our goal was to swing the bats better."

Brayden Healy, playing for the first time in seven weeks because of a broken arm, delivered a two-run single.

Ida Gold will play Summerfield at 6:15 p.m. Monday.

Chris Wicker and Nolan Brown delivered RBI singles for Dundee.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Frenchtown, Ash-Carleton move into winners' bracket finals at Fair