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The Brown City Green Devils saw their great season end in the Division 3 Regional semifinals at Bad Axe Saturday when they were edged, 5-4, in eight innings, by Frankenmuth. The Lady Devils closed with a 25-8 record. Frankenmuth (27-11) then fell to #2 ranked USA (37-2) in the championship game, 4-0.

With three fast, left-handed hitters at the top of the line-up, Frankenmuth ousted Marlette in Districts 7-0 the Saturday before. Brown City, the other East co-champion, just missed the upset, though.

After the Lady Devils tied the game at 2-2 with a run in the bottom of the sixth, the game went into the eighth inning when the Eagles looked to put the game away with three runs, with most of the damage coming from the top of the order. After ÔMuth's No. 9 hitter reached base on a bunt, the lead-off hitter followed with a single. On a bunt by the next batter, a throwing error scored two runs. Three more singles led to what proved to be the winning tally.

BC did not rollover, however. Michelle Burgess smacked a one-out, two-run single in the bottom of the inning to pull within a run. Eagle pitcher Abby Rodammer, though, ended the Devil rally by retiring the next two batters.

"The girls never gave up. They played hard right through to the end," said BC coach Erin Snyder.

"What really hurt us was their speed. Their top three batters are excellent bunters and they have a lot of speed," Snyder said. She added, "What it comes down to is who makes the least amount of errors, and it wasn't us."

Senior outfielder Liz Bartle and junior outfielder Amanda Oligney each had a double and single off Rodammer, who gave up six hits in all, but struck out eight.

Brown City freshmen Kristen Greene took the loss on the mound, allowing six hits and fanning five.

"Kristen did a wonderful job for us, but we just couldn't get it done when we had to," remarked Snyder.

The first-year varsity coach at BC will have seven returning position players for next year.

"I'm happy with what we accomplished for the first year - my first year," Snyder noted. "Our younger kids, especially, now have got that hunger to want to win, That's half the battle."