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2023 MHSAA Tournament: Division 3 State Semifinal - Bridgman vs Standish-Sterling

EAST LANSING - Cooper Allwood singled in Alec MacMartin with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to bring Bridgman one win away from the initial state championship in history at the Berrien County school.

MacMartin led off the last of the seventh with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt from Tanner Peters before the Allwood hit to right field sent the Bees to the finals for the first time since 2013 with a 3-2 victory over Standish-Sterling in the Division III semifinals on Thursday.

The Bees trailed 2-0 heading to the last of the fifth before tying the game up against Standish-Sterling sophomore pitcher Sam Briggs. Both Kyle Dargus and MacMartin reached on errors and Peters moved them up with a sac bunt. An Allwood ground out made it 2-1 and the third Standish-Sterling miscue of the inning tied it up at 2-2.

The same players came through two innings later when MacMartin hit a single up the middle, advanced to second on a sac bunt from Peters and scored the game-winning run on an Allwood base hit to right.

The Panthers plated the first run of the game in the fourth on a Cooper Prout double and an RBI single from Brayden Schabel. Briggs made it 2-0 with a two-out double down the left-field line to bring home Brock Bartlett, who reached on a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Kasen Wendel.

MacMartin did not allow a hit over the final two frames to improve to 12-2 on the season, ending the game with six Ks during a four-hit outing, walking one and hitting a batter.

Briggs gave up just two hits and three base on balls while hitting a pair of batters in defeat, allowing only one earned run and fanning eight for the Panthers.

Briggs, Prout, Schabel and Bartlett had the lone four hits for Standish-Sterling, which finished with two more base knocks than the Bees.

The loss marks the second year in a row that the Panthers were beaten in the state semifinals, losing to Buchanan 6-1 in eight innings a year ago.

Bridgman will now go for its first state crown ever on Saturday at 5 p.m. against Algonac. The Bees have been beaten previously in state title games in 1994 and 2011.

LINESCORE

Standish-Sterling   000  110  0  -  2  4  4
Bridgman                 000  020  1  -  3  2  2

Records: Bridgman 32-9, Standish-Sterling 29-15.

Winning pitcher: Alec MacMartin (7 innings, 2 runs, 4 hits, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 HBP).

Losing pitcher: Sam Briggs (6.1 innings, 3 runs, 1 earned run, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks, 2 HBP).

Leading hitters: (Standish-Sterling) - Sam Briggs double, RBI; Cooper Prout double; Brecken Stokoszynski run; Brayden Schabel single, RBI; Brock Bartlett single, run. (Bridgman) - Alec MacMartin single, 2 runs; Cooper Allwood single, 2 RBIs; Kyle Dargus run.