UTICA – In the late frames of Tuesday night’s OAA vs. MAC All-Star Game, Birmingham Seaholm’s Colton Kinnie spoke about suiting up with three of his high school teammates for the last time. “We’ve been playing together for so long, I’m sad it has to come to an end, but if there’s a way that it does, this is the best way, I feel like,” he said.
For Kinnie and his teammates, it really did end in ideal fashion. Kinnie drove in his brother, Granden, and Lake Orion’s Ryan McCartan with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the OAA a 6-5 victory, its first in the fourth edition of the contest. “Yeah, if there was one way to end it, it’d have to be that one,” Colton confirmed following the game.
After both of the MAC’s runs were scored in the second inning, OAA pitchers that included Rochester’s JT Sawdon, Troy’s Jon Whiteside and Troy Athens’ Parker Ciurla combined to hold the opposition scoreless until the top of the ninth, when the MAC pushed across three runs to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the inning, McCartan led off by drawing a walk, then Granden singled up the left side to put runners at first and second with no outs. Both baserunners advanced on a passed ball, leading to the decision to intentionally walk West Bloomfield’s Jaxon Stapf.
That’s when Colton drove a bouncer that got past the shortstop, allowing both runners to score and the OAA team to rush from the dugout for the celebration. “It was amazing, it wa.
