The Flivvers (18-9) fell behind 2-0 in the bottom of the first after a pair of walks and an unfortunate two-out error allowed the Northmen to take advantage.

Senior ace Gavin Trevillian struggled with control early but was in position to escape the first inning unscathed when he got a groundball to shortstop. But the throw across was a bit low and the ball was unable to be secured at first, squirting out of the glove as a runner crossed home with the first run.

The next hitter, Ely Pethers, then dumped a line-drive single into left to bring in another run.

“Obviously we did a couple of things in the beginning of the game that hurt us,” Flivvers head coach Joe Kriegl said. “You can’t get down against a team like Petoskey. Petoskey has a great program. Hats off to them. They beat us today.

(Ron Deuter photo) Senior second baseman Garrett Brown tags out Petoskey’s Peyton Harmon attempting to steal second in the second inning of Wednesday’s regional semifinal.

“Unfortunately against good teams it’s tough to come back from that. Their pitching wasn’t anything fast, but it was consistent. They threw strikes. They put you in a tough spot and they pop you up, and they have a really great defense behind them.”

Petoskey put runners on in just about every inning, but Trevillian was able to escape more times than not. It wasn’t until the fourth that the Northmen added to their lead with two more runs. Haden Janes, brought in a run with a sacrifice fly to right, and AJ Speigl added a two-out groundball RBI single up the middle.

Senior Joey Weber plated Kingsford’s only run in the fifth, chopping one over the bag at second and into centerfield to score senior Nolan Hendrickson, who stayed red hot in the postseason by reaching in all his plate appearances with three singles.

Kingsford only managed one other hit in the game, an infield single by junior Jack Kriegl in the first. The first five hitters in the line-up combined to go 1-for-12.

The Flivvers had one on and one away in the second, but grounded into an inning-ending double play. Kriegl, who also threw out two base stealers in the game, reached in the third after being hit by a pitch. He was left stranded at third.

Kingsford had a runner on base in both the sixth and seventh innings, but one was caught stealing and the other was picked off between second and third and tagged out for the second out in the seventh.

“We were trying to do some different things and yeah, it just didn’t work out for us,” Kriegl said. “We had some more strikeouts than I would have liked in certain spots. But it is what it is. I love the boys. Couldn’t be prouder of them. The seniors are going to be missed. But we’ve got to move on and just get better.”

Trevillian pitched into the sixth before giving way to Weber. Trevillian allowed six hits while fanning six and walking four.

Northmen senior Garrett Wodek went 5 2/3 innings, whiffing five, walking just one and yielding all four Kingsford hits, as his team improved to 30-5 in moving on to defend its regional title.

“I feel really fortunate to beat a really good Kingsford team,” Petoskey coach Shawn Racignol told the Petoskey News-Review. “There’s some talented kids there for Kingsford, a lot of seniors.”

Kingsford says goodbye to its core with its departing seniors Trevillian, Hendrickson, Weber, Garrett Brown, Andres Finley, Nic Novara and Gavin Grondin.

“This is a tough one, right,” Kriegl said. “These kids are so special, been with them forever. We’re going to miss them. Some big shoes to fill, but I’ll tell you what. We’ve got some good younger kids coming up and it’s going to be fun for the next several years.

“We kind of set the bar here. You see what kind of baseball you have to play to beat teams like this and move on. So the bar has been set, so we’ll see if we can match it at some point. If you want to advance in the playoffs, that’s the bar right there. Petoskey is the bar. Six-time district champions. They just don’t make mistakes.”