The Clinton Cards baseball team advanced to the Region 9C Tournament last weekend behind two complete game pitching performances by Mike Adelman.

You might say that there are a lot of pitchers that get two wins in their league tournaments.  That is right, but there aren't many that did what Mike did.

Mike Adelman

After finishing fourth in their league they had a one game playoff with Chokio on Saturday afternoon and beat them 8-5.  The prize for winning that game was to face Dumont, the league winner and owner of a 20-4 record on Saturday night.  Adelman took the mound and his team came back from a 3-1 deficit and won 6-4.

On Sunday, the Cards faced the number two seeded Morris Eagles.  They were a little short-handed pitching wise and Adelman told them he would try it again.  "I felt good on Sunday so I said let's try it," related Adelman.  "It felt good so I just kept on pitching."  He gave up one run in the fourth to tie the game 1-1 and went into the final frame leading 5-1.  Adelman allowed three runs and had the tying run on first, however, he got the next two batters to pop up and the game was over.  "The team played good behind me.  That's all any pitcher can ask for," said Adelman.

"That was fun.  I stay in the game...It doesn't matter how many pitches I throw," he stated.  For the record he threw 130 pitches on Saturday night and 123 on Sunday.    The 38 year old doesn't believe in pitch counts but said that he always ices his arm after pitching. He says that he hasn't had any arm trouble since high school in Bellingham. He had never pitched two games in two days before, but had pitched both games of a double header one day in the regional tournament in 2001.  He won the first game (9 innings) and lost the second one 1-0 (7 innings).

Adelman was a business major at Southwest State in Marshall and now manages a hog farm in Beardsley.  He has played in the Land O'Ducks league for 24 years.

Clinton will play the winner of the Dumont/Morris game which is Saturday night the 26^th at Wheaton.  If Dumont wins, the game will be at Wheaton Sunday night.  If Morris wins, the game will be at Morris on Sunday afternoon.  Adelman will be the starting pitcher for Clinton.