Ostrander's Pitching Debut Keys Eskymo DH Sweep

ESCANABA---He can't even remember the last time he pitched in a baseball game.

Lewis Ostrander has had a ball in his right hand during countless practices, but never in a high school baseball game. So when the Eskymo junior climbed onto the Al Ness Field mound on Sunday, you could excuse everyone for scratching their heads.

Coach Schwalbach and Jack Valentine.

But Ostrander made a believer out of his coach, teammates, and everyone at the field on Sunday, as he pitched a complete-game in Escanaba's 11-2 win over Kingsford in the second game of a doubleheader.

Escanaba also held on to win the first game, 5-4.

Ostrander scattered seven hits over seven innings and walked just two batters.

"In my mind, I knew I had to be confident and I had a lot of reps on the mound (in practice)," Ostrander said. "I believed in myself, but I didn't think that I'd pitch a complete game, to be honest. But I guess it worked out."

Ostrander relied on his curveball to keep the Kingsford batters guessing all day long.

"I've been struggling in the bullpen locating my curveball," Ostrander said. "It kept slipping out of my hands. But today, whenever I ended up at the batter's left elbow...on a righty... it broke quite a bit, and I got a couple of guys on it."

Lewis Ostrander post-game comments

Escanaba Manager Kirk Schwalbach liked what he saw from Ostrander.

"Lewis hasn't had an opportunity to pitch and he's not an overpowering kid," Schwalbach said. "But I've talked to the kids about 'opportunity', and he had an opportunity. Boy, did he come through."

Kingsford's Wes Paupore leads off of second as Hunter LaMarch plays defense Sunday.

"He had such good mound presence. He kept his poise. When he needed to go after kids, he hit his spots, and made quality pitches."

Ostrander's best inning was the second inning, when he got three outs on four pitches.

"He got a lot of ground ball outs," Schwalbach said. "He was mixing in his change real good and they were hitting off their front foot. I told him, that's what pitching is. It's getting the hitters to swing off-balance. I'm real proud of him."

So, really, when is the last time that Ostrander pitched during a game?

"It's been a long time," he said. "Longer than I can remember. I think the whole team didn't believe it when I said that I was pitching. They thought that I was joking."

The Eskymos scored four runs in the third inning to break a scoreless tie.

Bailey Lamb in a pickle, Jack Valentine also scores

Bailey Lamb smackd a two-run single, then Jack Valentine had an infield single that also scored two runs. Kingsford scored twice off of Ostrander in the top of the fourth inning on a single by Cole Michaud, cutting the Escanaba lead to 4-2.

But the Eskymos scored five more runs in the fifth inning to put the game away. Lamb had another RBI hit and Corey McInerney had an infield hit to bring h0me another run. Several runs came in on mistakes, as Kingsford made six errors in the game.

Earlier in the day, the Eskymos had to hang on to post a 5-4 win over the Legion Blues.

Valentine had an RBI single in the second inning to put Escanaba in front, then in the third inning, Hunter LaMarch's fly ball to deep left field was dropped, allowing another run to score.

Then Lamb ripped a single to make it 3-0.

Escanaba's lead grew to 4-0 in the fourth inning on a ground ball by Ben Kleiman.

But in the fifth inning, Kingsford rallied against Eskymo pitcher Tyler Skufca. Brandon Kowalkowski had an RBI single and Wes Paupore grounded home another run.

The Eskymos scored an insurance run in the fifth inning when Lamb walked and eventually came home on a wild pitch.

Jack Valentine post-game comments

But the 5-2 lead was not safe as Kingsford rallied in the top of the seventh inning. Tony Rebeira's two-run single off of relief pitcher Kleiman cut it to 5-4. An error then re-loaded the bases for the Blues.

Kleiman got Brock Grenier to fly out to end the game.

With the sweep, Escanaba improved to 7-7 on the season. The Eskymos travel to Appleton, Wis., for a game against Appleton East on Monday. Then Escanaba will have a rematch with Kingsford on Tuesday at Kingsford's Spigarelli Field.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, a video of Bailey Lamb in a pickle, and listen to radio highlights and interviews from the game.

Escanaba's C.J. Barron (5) rounds third and heads for home during Sunday's game. (Sheila Olsen photo)

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

4/11	5:30 PM	at Appleton North Lightning	3 - 7 (L)	0-1

4/18	4:00 PM	at Bay City Central Wolves	6 - 4 (W)	1-1

4/18	6:00 PM	at Bay City Central Wolves	2 - 8 (L)	1-2

4/19	11:00 AM	at Essexville-Garber Dukes	7 - 16 (L)	1-3

4/19	1:00 PM	at Essexville-Garber Dukes	3 - 14 (L)	1-4

4/25	6:00 PM	at Kenosha Tremper High School	9 - 2 (W)	2-4

4/26	10:00 AM	at Waupun, Wis.	6 - 4 (W)	3-4

4/26	6:30 PM	at Fox Valley Lutheran High School	4 - 7 (L)	3-5

5/3	12:30 PM	Menominee Red Wave Legion	10 - 0 (W)	4-5

5/3	5:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	0 - 7 (L)	4-6

5/7	5:30 PM	at Marquette Redmen	10 - 4 (W)	5-6

5/8	4:30 PM	at Gladstone Braves	0 - 1 (L)	5-7

5/11	1:00 PM	Kingsford Legion Blues	5 - 4 (W)	6-7

5/11	3:15 PM	Kingsford Legion Blues	11 - 2 (W)	7-7

5/13	6:30 PM	at Kingsford Legion Blues	15 - 0 (W)	8-7

5/16	5:00 PM	Alpena Wildcats	7 - 2 (W)	9-7

5/16	7:00 PM	Alpena Wildcats	6 - 2 (W)	10-7

5/17	12:30 PM	Houghton Gremlins	7 - 2 (W)	11-7

5/17	5:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	6 - 7 (L)	11-8

5/22	4:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	10 - 0 (W)	12-8

5/24	12:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	9 - 0 (W)	13-8

5/24	2:30 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	10 - 3 (W)	14-8

5/26	6:00 PM	Gladstone Braves	1 - 3 (L)	14-9

5/29	4:30 PM	Marinette Marines	5 - 7 (L)	14-10

5/31	12:30 PM	at Cheboygan Chiefs	19 - 3 (W)	15-10

5/31	3:00 PM	at Petoskey Northmen	5 - 3 (W)	16-10

6/7	10:00 AM	Newaygo High School	6 - 1 (W)	17-10

6/7	3:00 PM	Gladwin	1 - 4 (L)	17-11