Ben Murphy photo Gladstone’s Tyler Darmogrey hauls in a pop-up against Evart in an MHSAA regional final at East Jordan Saturday.

EAST JORDAN — The Gladstone baseball team had scored 42 runs through its first three post-season games. The Braves saw their bats fall silent on Saturday, however, when Evart ace Danny Witbeck kept them off the scoreboard in what was a 2-0 loss in a Division 3 regional championship game held at East Jordan.

“Credit to them, he is a good pitcher, and he pitched well today,” head coach Lucas LaCosse said. “Obviously, we didn’t put a whole lot of balls in play, but we didn’t play a bad game. It’s just maybe that they played a little bit better than us today.”

The hard-throwing Witbeck, a Cornerstone University commit, pitched all seven innings and barely ran into trouble, giving up just four base runners. He allowed three hits and hit one batter, and struck out 11.

Gladstone started junior Cam Kelly on the mound, and he was nearly just as dominant. He gave up two runs, one earned, struck out two and pitched around seven walks in five innings of work to keep the Braves in the thick of things until the end.

“Cam did a great job,” LaCosse said. “I told him it was your game, but at the end, he just got a little bit tired. I am sure he would have loved to finish the game, but he kept us right in it.”

Carter Vanbrocklin led off the game with a hit to right field for the Braves, and he advanced to second base a batter later when Blake Krouth tapped the ball back to Witbeck, who gunned it to first for an out. Witbeck fanned the next batter and ended the top of the first by inducing a flyout to the ensuing batter.

Witbeck struck out five of the next six batters to breeze through the second and third innings.

Gladstone had lead-off singles in both the top of the fourth and fifth, thanks to Krouth and Mason Lachance, but Krouth was left stranded after the next three batters were retired. Then, Lachance was gunned down attempting to steal second to empty the bases.

Vanbrocklin was hit by a pitch with one out in the top of the sixth inning, but Witbeck retired the next five batters in order to end the game.

Kelly allowed a triple to Evart’s first batter of the game but left him stranded there thanks to a groundout to third and a pair of popups on the infield.

He pitched out of jams in the second and third innings, leaving two runners stranded in both frames, but Evart managed to crack the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth.

The Wildcats drew a one-out walk, and that runner eventually came around to score on a passed ball.

Evart scored again in the sixth as that innings’ leadoff batter reached base on a walk and came in to score on a groundout two batters later.

“I thought we played a great game,” LaCosse said. “I’m proud of our kids. It is not easy to get this far, so all-in-all, I think we had a great season.”

The loss ends what was otherwise another successful campaign for the Braves, who claimed the program’s seventh straight district championship last week with wins over Newberry and Superior Central and reached the regional championship game thanks to a high-scoring win over Iron Mountain on Wednesday. All this of course, after there wasn’t even a spring 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is rough for the seniors that only got to play one year of varsity,” Lacosse said. “I would have loved more than anything in the world to get them out of here and down to Michigan State University (site of the final four), but they had a great season, and getting this far is tough. We had

a rough start to the season, so for them to get this far, I think is a great credit to how hard they fight and how well they play.”

Lachance came in to pitch an inning of relief after Kelly walked the lead-off batter in the top of the sixth. He walked the first batter he faced and allowed the Wildcats’ second run to score on a groundout, but pitched out of the jam from there with another groundout, and a flyball to rightfield that Dylan Pepin made a nice diving grab on.

Vanbrocklin had a single and reached on a hit by pitch, with Krouth and Lachance getting the team’s other hits.