Portage Lake wins district title

The Portage Lake All-Stars, a Junior Baseball team from Houghton County, will continue playing baseball for at least another week.

Portage Lake defeated the Marquette Junior All-Stars, 17-4 on Wednesday to capture the District 11 Championship.

Next up for the boys from Portage lake is another tournament right here in the U.P.

“That’s why we do this right? The kids are happy, we are happy. We get to practice for another full week,” said Jim Cortright, the manager of the Portage Lake All-Stars.

“Baseball is a funny game. We didn’t play very well the first game (of the series), but we just started to hit the baseball and we got great pitching,” Cortright added.

“It feels great to go down to Norway and play next,” said Portage Lake pitcher Alan Jurmu. “We are hitting the ball a lot better and our pitching is good,” said Jurmu.

“Its a lot of fun, we are a good ball club. We need to play like we did this week- hitting the ball, not making any errors, and playing good in the field,” said Portage Lake infielder Pat Cortright.

“We need to just have fun,” said Darren Nordstrom, a catcher for Portage Lake. “That’s what the coaches want us to do and that is when we play our best,” Nordstrom went on to say.

The 13-year-old players from Portage Lake have won four straight district titles, dating back to 2010.

The Junior Baseball Regional Tournament in Norway starts next week.