Rockets win tourney title

KOKOMO — They rallied to win the tournament opener.

Then rallied to earn a spot in the championship.

Another rally wasn’t needed to take the trophy.

The Portland Rockets capped their up-and-down season by winning the championship in the Kokomo Classic tournament Sunday at Highland Park.

Portland, which ended the season at 13-14, defeated the Mishawaka Brewers 4-2 in the first game of pool play Friday before dropping a 4-3 score to Chicago Clout on Saturday to garner the No. 2 seed and a spot in the semifinals.

Once there, Portland edged the Fort Wayne Jackers, a team it hadn’t beaten in three tries during the regular season, by a 6-5 margin.

In the championship against the South Bend Royals, a hot start carried over into a high-scoring, 15-9 victory to win hardware.

Against the Royals, Luke Barns, Geoff Bowers and Peyton Smith all had RBIs as part of a four-run first inning to give the Rockets a lead they never gave up. Portland, which added one run in the second and two in the third, was ahead 7-2 before the Royals mounted a comeback with a three-run fifth.

Portland answered with three runs of its own in the sixth to make it 10-5, only to have the lead trimmed to two again as South Bend plated another three runs.

To keep up with the theme, Caleb Mealy and Smith knocked in RBIs as Portland scored three times — the fourth consecutive half inning to feature three runs — as the Rockets put the game out of reach, 13-8. South Bend scored its final run in the eighth inning, while Portland added two in the top of the ninth.

In the final game, Muncie native Kasey Henderson totaled five hits and three RBIs. Zach Orn tallied four hits and three RBIs, while Smith contributed three hits and three RBIs.

Trailing 2-1 in the fifth inning against the Brewers, Noah Wagy came through with a two-run single to put Portland on top. The Rockets added some insurance in the seventh on an RBI single from Barnes.

Portland fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning against the Clout, but scored once in the second, fourth and sixth frames for a 3-2 advantage. Bowers knocked in the run in the fourth frame, while Smith drove in the run during the sixth.

The Clout tied the game in the seventh and scored the winning run in the eighth.

Fort Wayne jumped out front in the semifinal with a three-run first inning and plated another run in the second.

The Rocket rally started in the top of the fifth inning, as Orn hit an RBI single and Peyton Hurd drove in two on a single in the same frame to tie the score — Mealy put Portland on the board with an RBI in the third.

Hurd and Henderson both hit RBIs to put Portland on top, 6-4, and the Rockets held off the Jackers, who cut the deficit in half with a run in the seventh but were unable to force extra innings.

Henderson and Orn both led the Rockets with eight hits for the tournament.