NorthWood 10U baseball finished runner-up at the Town & Country State Finals Tuesday evening. (Photo courtesy the NorthWood Youth Baseball/Softball Facebook page)

FRANKFORT – NorthWood had the advantage heading into the finals, but the home-sided Frankfort 10U baseball team managed to reverse fortunes.

Frankfort rallied to win two games Tuesday in the championship round of the Town & Country 10U baseball state championship series, defeating previously undefeated NorthWood for the title. NorthWood, which had beaten Frankfort 6-4 in the bracket semi-finals, had to come back to Frankfort Tuesday after Monday’s games were rained out. Frankfort would piece together performances of 12-7 and 13-3 to earn the 10U title.

The extra day for Frankfort, plus playing on its home field, may have been the added push it needed to get the title.

Nine different Hot Dogs had base hits and nine different Hot Dogs drove in a run in an extremely balanced offensive attack in the first matchup.

Frankfort opened the game with a seven-spot in the first, and while NorthWood would claw five runs back, the hosts would plate a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to hang a must-win to force the winner-take-all final.

Drew Rains and Kale Symons each had two RBIs for the Panthers and Kingston Cook added two hits and a run scored in the loss.

With the win, the double elimination format had the two teams come right back and play for the title.

NorthWood scored the first run of Tuesday night’s championship matchup, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Brady Blackford tally. Frankfort would respond with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first, and after NorthWood got one back, Frankfort would tack on three runs in the second and four more in the third en route to the ten-run capper.

Both teams were one-seeds coming into the state finals after winning semi-state crowns the week before.

In the 12U tourney played at Frankton, also delayed a day by rain Monday evening, Plymouth rode similar fortune to what Frankfort displayed, rallying for a pair of wins to upend Fairfield for the championship.

Plymouth, the top seed from the top of the bracket, were upset in round one by the hosts at Frankton, but worked through the loser’s bracket to beat Madison-Grant, Ole Miss, revenge against Frankton and then knocked off Rochester to get to the final draw. Fairfield, a three-seed, made the final by winning both of its draw games against Madison-Grant and Rochester to sit 2-0 and in command.

That changed as Plymouth won Tuesday’s first game, then came back to edge Fairfield, 2-1, to claim the championship.

In the only championship game played Monday, the 8U final went to Alexandria, which held on to beat Greentown, 6-5, at Plymouth. Alexandria, a one seed from the south, went 4-0 in the 8U tournament to claim its hardware.