GLADSTONE - After falling into the loser's bracket, John Blomquist knew his Iron Mountain North team was a longshot to win the state junior league baseball championship.

But after avenging an earlier loss to Saginaw with an 8-2 victory in Tuesday's opener, North found itself two wins away from the title here Tuesday afternoon.

In the end, a six-run first inning deficit proved too much to overcome for I-M, as Midland cruised to its third consecutive state title with a convincing 13-3 victory in four and a half innings at Don Olsen Field.

"We were into our ninth and 10th pitchers" said Blomquist. "When you have to come out of the loser's bracket, you make it awfully tough to win the whole thing."

After playing second base for most of the season, Logan O'Neil became that ninth pitcher Blomquist was referring to.

"O'Neil has never pitched before at this level, so I didn't think he fared too badly considering the circumstances," said Blomquist.

O'Neil pitched the first three innings for North, giving up nine runs on 11 hits.

Midland pitcher Matt Somers held Iron Mountain to just three hits. North trailed 8-0 with two outs in the third inning, when it scored twice to cut the deficit to 8-2.

Brad Blomquist walked, took second on a balk, and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Ken Pekarek. Pekarek went to third on a single by Josh Brock, then came home when the Midland catcher threw down to second on an attempted steal by Brock.

Iron Mountain scored its third run of the game in the top of the fifth. Cole Grenier struck out, but reached first on a passed ball. He came around on a double by Brock.

"We watched Iron Mountain crush the ball all weekend long so we knew they were a great team," said Midland manager Ched Johnson.

Blomquist wishes Midland well in the regional tournament in Fort Wayne.

"They have a quality team, but I'm not taking anything away from our guys," Blomquist said. "We played hard and gave it our best shot."