Dramatic start to the Little League district games

Saginaw Township, Michigan – If Day 1 is any indication, get ready for one insane district tournament.

Major baseball district action began Thursday with two thrilling games at the Saginaw Little League’s south campus, with neighboring rivals Bay City Southwest and Greater Bay engaged in another epic showdown and Saginaw and Bay County Eastside battling into overtime.

The four-team round-robin portion of the tournament continues on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as teams try to secure spots for Monday’s championship game.

RELATED: Little League District Pairings, Results

Bay City Southwest 2, Greater Bay 0

It wouldn’t be a Southwest-Greater Bay duel without a fight to the finish, and this tournament opener lived up to expectations.

Gavin Dore threw five scoreless innings and Reis Kanuszewski had three strikeouts in the sixth inning, giving Southwest a 2-0 win.

“We had great pitchers and a great defense to back them up,” Southwest coach Mike Dore said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”

Southwest (1-0) scored on singles by Ian Schilb and Kanuszewski and an RBI groundout by Parker Lutz in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. Gavin Dore and Luke Fauver hit singles in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 2-0.

Dore allowed just three hits and no walks in five innings to earn the win. Kanuszewski came on in the sixth inning with one on and no outs and struck out three batters in a row for the save.

Dore, Kanuszewski, Fauver, Schilb and Jaxon Swaton each had hits for Southwest, with Fauver and Lutz adding RBIs.

Greater Bay (0-1) got hits from Cam Bartlett, Jack VanOchten and Cayden Prime. GBLL put the first runner on base in three innings but couldn’t bring anyone home.

VanOchten, Jett Gohr and Colton Burch combined for five hits with ten strikeouts for Greater Bay.

SAGINAW 13, BAY COUNTY EASTSIDE 9

Each district often provides plenty of drama, and Saginaw and Eastside provided plenty of it on opening night.

Saginaw (1-0) had a 9-4 lead, but Eastside rallied by five runs in the sixth inning and had to go to overtime. But Saginaw countered with a rally of its own, scoring four runs to take a 13-9 victory.

Eastside (0-1) was down to its final at-bats before refusing to settle down. JD Giffin, Jake Bouchard and Eliot Paul each hit a double, Colin Spencer hit a two-run triple and Ryan Weber added an RBI single to start the surge to tie the game.

Giffin led Eastside with three hits, while Bouchard, Spencer and Weber each had two. Brycen Reszke, Xavier Nugent, Keelan Spicher, Josh Jacobs and Paul each had one hit. Bouchard was the best among the six pitchers, striking out three in a scoreless inning on the mound.

Saginaw’s offensive performance was highlighted by home runs from Sean LeRoux, Andrew Egerer and Brayden Skutt. Eggerer had two hits and scored four runs, while LeRoux scored three runs with two RBIs.

Lennox Ploetz had three hits, Easton Kaul and Ben Kramer had two each, and Tate Kaul, Nolan Tracy and Matthew Barnes joined Skutt with one hit. Skutt struck out three batters in the seventh inning to secure the win.