Grand finale

They did it courtesy of first baseman Reed Heathman, who crushed a grand slam in the sixth inning to put Garnet Garage up by the three runs they needed to win.

For his heroics at the plate, Heathman was awarded the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

“Reed was big for us not just in this game but all tournament,” said Garnet Garage’s player-coach Kevin Bostwick. “In the first game of this tourney, he had a walk-off homer for us. His swing is just awesome.”

Garnet Garage jumped on to the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning with three runs. Brandon Norkel walked and came home on a Cade Farrell base hit off Stanton’s starter Levi Frahm. Farrell touched home courtesy of a base rap by Bostwick, who came home thanks to Gaborik Carlson.

Garnet Garage’s Reed Heathman (7) is greeted at home by his teammates after hitting a game-winning grand slam against Houghton Building Supply-Stanton in the finals of Leo Durocher Tournament on Sunday in Stanton. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

It was a 3-0 lead for Garnet Garage after three frames, and that is how it stood until the top of the fifth.

In that frame, Houghton Building Supply posted four runs and had their first lead of the game. Frahm helped his own cause with an RBI double that scored Brad Juntinen. Then several batters later with bases loaded, player-coach Daron Durocher poked one to left center and cleared the bases for runs two, three and four, giving 4-3 Houghton Building Supply the advantage.

However, that lead was reversed just an inning later with Heathman’s grand slam in the bottom of the sixth, which sealed the deal.

Coy Budweg was the winning pitcher for Garnet Garage. It was his second complete-game win of the day. He pitched a total of 14 innings on Sunday.

Durocher gave credit to a good Garnet Garage squad.

“They are a tough team, and that was good baseball,” he said. “They were better than us today. Hats off to them.”

As for the keys to success in a repeat tournament win, Bostwick noted perseverance on the field as a team.

“We are not getting down if things don’t go our way,” he related. “Hopefully we can build off this momentum and have a good rest of the season.”