Saline Baseball Wins Second Straight District Title

The Saline baseball team avenged a pair of league losses to clinch the D1 district title with a 5-0 win over Dexter Saturday.

The Hornets dropped two of three games to the Dreadnaughts in the regular season, but it was Saline who came out on top to keep its season alive Saturday.

Ryder Concannon was stellar on the mound, spring out six Dexter hits over seven innings and striking out six for the win on the hill for Saline.

The game was scoreless for third innings when the Hornets went on top with a rbi-double by Devin Lilley to drive in Matt Bachran for a 1-0 lead.

Saline blew the game open with four runs in the fifth.

Brendan Warwinsky singled in a run to get things going, followed by a rbi-single by Noah Reeves for a 3-0 lead. Tousa squeezed home a run and Dexter balked in another for a 5-0 lead.

That is all Concannon would need.

Dexter put two runners on in the fifth and two in the seventh, but a double play ended the game for the Hornets.

Reeves finished with two hits and a rbi, while Warwinsky and Mason Piazza each had two hits and a run scored.

Lilley finished with a hit and rbi, Austin Abbate a hit and run scored, and Matt Mareno one hit.

Saline fell behind early to Pioneer, but scored three in the sixth and one in the seventh to rally for a 7-5 win in the semifinals.

The big blow of the game was an inside-the-park three run homer by Cole Kreuzer to put the Hornets on top 6-5 in the sixth.

Reeves earned the win on the mound with four strikeouts in five innings of relief work.

Concannon led the offense with two hits including a triple and two rbi.

Kreuzer finished with the home run and three rbi, while Warwinsky and Lilley had a hit and run scored each. Colton Tousa and Johnny Arvai each had a hit and Mareno drove in a pair of runs for Saline.

The Hornets improved to 27-12 on the season. They advance to the D1 regional at Howell Wednesday to face Hartland.