!http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-17980/tom_majorstate.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9203|height=288|style=padding:10px|align=right|width=432|src=http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-17980/tom_majorstate.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9203|border=0|vspace=0!I guess should start of by apologizing for not writing more stories but  to be honest, I have been so tired by the end of the day that all I  want to do is take a hot show and get some sleep. I did three games on  Friday and two games Saturday and only have one game today and that  isn't until 6 PM tonight. I guess my age is finally starting to show  and while my mind wants to keep going, the body is saying something  different. But I won't bore you with all of those details and will save  them for another day.



This story is about my last game of the day on Friday and I had the Plate. The host team, District 14, Bay City SW beat District 7, St. Clair Shores by the score of 6 to 1. But as Paul Harvey would say, "and now, for the rest of the story..."



This was probably the best game of the day and thus far, the best game of the tournament. As the headline reads, it went eight innings with all of the runs being scored in this last inning. It was a pitching duel between Bay City's Scott Badour and St. Clair's Tyler Lozen. Both boys pitched like this was a Regional final game where the winner was moving on to the World Series. Badour didn't allow any runs to score on four hits and had ten strikeouts. Lozen for his part, didn't allow any runs either and only allowed two hits while striking out ten. Both boys also had great defensive backup plays from the rest of their team members.



St. Clair did have a chance to win the game at the bottom of the seventh inning when Jonny Joachim hit a double and went to third on a passed ball. He then tried to stretch that overthrow into a run by heading for home. But a nice throw to the Bay City catcher, Seth Freed led Joachim sliding right into Freed's glove as he tried to end the game. Close play at home, but I called him out and we were on to the eight inning.



As it happens all the time in Little League, opportunities happen when you change pitchers and that's what broke this game open. Both pitchers had reached their maximum 85 pitches for the day and had to be replaced. In the top of the eight inning Bay City lead off with a double by Justin Gorr. This was followed by a single by Loban Eby and another double with an RBI by Brendan Taberski and Bay City put the first run on the board. With the bases now loaded, Hayden Clements hit a long fly ball to center and out of the park for a grand slam home run! Bay City went into the bottom of the eight inning leading 6 to 0.



St. Clair wasn't about to be counted out and had opportunities to score in their half of the inning. After three walks and a sacrifice fly, they were finally able to but a run on the board. But Bay City ended the game with a final strike out and the final score was 6 to 1.



For me personally, this was one of the best games I have participated in in a very long time. Both teams were great, the crowds were fantastic and the players had fun. As a volunteer umpire, it doesn't get any better than that.



Today is Sunday and as I mentioned, I only have one game today and I'll be at second base. For the first three days all of the umpire assignments were pre-assigned. Tomorrow we move into the Double Elimination bracket leading to the Championship game. Going forward, each of these games will be assigned on a daily basis so I won't know where I'll be tomorrow, if anywhere.

You can follow the games by checking out the brackets at www.llbmichigan.org and official photographer for the tournament, Adam Webster from  Reminiscent Photography has pictures from the games on his website www.reminiscent-photo.com.  He has also promised me some action shots that I can add here so look  for those later. In the meantime, check out the photos from the Bay  City, St. Clair game by clicking here.