Escanaba Cubs Get Split At Firecracker Tournament

MARINETTE, Wis.---The Escanaba Cubs American Legion Baseball team continued to play shorthanded on Saturday at the Firecracker Tournament in Marinette, Wis.

But the guys managed to compete well in both games against Wisconsin opponents, falling to Green Bay, 5-3, before pulling out a wild 12-10 win over Watertown.

Meanwhile, the Upper Peninsula's other teams in this tournament had mixed results.

The Marquette Blues lost to Marinette, 9-1, but then topped Manitowoc, 4-2.

The Ishpeming Blue Storm lost twice: to Manitowoc, 13-0, and to Green Bay, 12-3.

The Menominee Red Wave put on a late rally to beat Watertown, 4-3.

As for the Cubs, a long day began with a morning game against Green Bay.

The Cubs got a good performance from a first- time starter in second basemen JV "call-up" Justin Popelka but lost Saturday afternoon’s game to the Blue Jays 5-3. Popelka had two hits and two RBI for the Cubs and also made a nice defensive play during the game.

Nick Vandermissen hit vs Green Bay

The losing pitcher for the Cubs was Andrew Sedlar who went three and two thirds innings, giving up eight hits and allowing five runs (three earned) and striking out three while walking one.

The winning pitcher for Green Bay was Evan Basten, who pitched all seven innings in the game allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits, with eight strikeouts and three walks.

The Cubs got on the board in the first inning that started out with a walk by David Falish, and he advanced to second on an errant pickoff by the pitcher Basten.

Falish then moved over to third as Lewis Ostrander got on first by an error by the Green Bay third basemen Paul Schumacher.

Falish scored from third base on a sacrifice fly by Nick Vandermissen with one out. Ostrander was caught stealing at second base to end the inning.

Green Bay didn’t score until the third inning when Keaton Kasper led off the top of the third with a single, advanced to second after Stephen Meier was hit by a pitch, and a single by Basten loaded the bases.

But the defensive play of the afternoon came when the Green Bay shortstop Brad Van Pay ripped one to Popelka’s right at second base. Popelka made a running catch, and used his momentum to touch the bag at second and get a huge double play.

Justin Popelka unassisted double play

The Green Bay catcher Dominic Manzi followed up the double play, however, with an RBI single to score Kasper from third.

The Blue Jays added to their lead in the top of the fourth with a four run inning.

Colin Shaw led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Paul Schumacher, and moved to third on a passed ball with Tyler Van Den Hoogen at the plate. Van Den Hoogen walked and stole second base, and Kasper followed with a two RBI single.

Kasper stole second base, advanced to third on a single by Evan Basten and scored on an errant pickoff attempt to first base by Sedlar.

The error allowed Basten to move up to second base. Van Pay singled to follow setting up a first and third situation.

Ostrander came in to pitch for Sedlar with two outs in the top of the fourth.

Van Pay stole second base on the first pitch, and before the next pitch Ostrander stepped off the mound to check on Van Pay at second.

Lewis hesitated with the throw and caught the middle infielders napping as Basten stole home plate in the first and third situation to end the inning at 5-1.

Escanaba got two of those runs back in the bottom of the inning as Punzel and Vandermissen both singled to lead off the inning. Skufca and Olsen were both retired before Jake Rodman extended the inning with a two out walk to load the bases.

Justin Popelka 2-run base hit

Then Popelka stepped up to the plate making his first career start for the Cubs and his first plate appearance with the bases loaded.

Popelka ripped a two out, two RBI single to right center field to score Punzel and Vandermissen to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Ostrander retired the final ten Blue Jays hitters to hold the deficit, but it just wasn’t enough as the Cubs had scoring chances in both the fifth and sixth innings but couldn’t get another clutch two out hit. Punzel and Vandermissen both singled with two outs to start a two out rally in the fifth but Skufca lined out to right field to end the threat.

In the sixth, Popelka and Sedlar also singled with two outs to start another rally, but Falish popped out to the first basemen to leave two runners on base.

Brandon Punzel and Popelka each had two hits for the Cubs, with Punzel scoring a run.

Vandermissen had an RBI, a walk, and a single.

The Cubs team then went to get some food...many of them at Applebees...as the boys had more than four hours to wait before playing Watertown in the night contest.

Escanaba took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Vandermissen, and an RBI grounder by Skufca. In the bottom of the inning, Watertown got a run, but Escanaba scored four runs in the second inning to take a 6-1 lead.

Brandon Punzel 3-run hit vs Watertown

The Cubs got hits from Popelka and Jake Rodman (bunt single), but the next two men made outs. It looked like Watertown would get out of the inning unscathed, but Ostrander's ground ball was missplayed at second base. Two runs scored, and the Cubs had a 4-1 lead. Vandermissen then ripped a two-run double to make it 6-1.

But in the bottom of the second, Watertown scored six times as Rodman made his first pitching performance for the Cubs. The Wisconsin team had six hits as 11 men came to the plate in that inning. Chase Fischer had a two-run hit for Watertown.

Escanaba trailed, 7-6, after two innings.

The Cubs tied it in the fourth inning on a sacrafice fly by Skufca, and Ostrander came on to pitch in relief and tossed a couple of 1-2-3 innings. It was a 7-7 game entering the fifth inning.

Escanaba scored five runs in the top of the fifth to take command. The big hit was a bases-clearing double by Punzel, scoring three runs and making it a 10-7 game. Punzel had been struggling at the plate, but says that he was confident on Saturday.

After Watertown intentionally walked Vandermissen, we saw the longest "pickle play" in recent Cubs memory. Skufca got a base hit, and that scored Punzel to make it 11-7.

Then, Skufca went too far past first base and got in a rundown. What followed was 30
seconds of Skufca avoiding a tag between first and second, as Vandermissen kept running. Vandermissen eventually scored before Skufca was finally tagged out.

Tyler Skufca gets RBI hit, then a long pickle play.

Escanaba (3-5) had to hang on at the end, despite the 12-7 cushion. Watertown scored a run on two hits and a walk in the bottom of the fifth against Ostrander.

Then, when Casey Schuett launched a lead-off home run in the sixth inning, Ohman removed Ostrander from the mound and asked Skufca to get the final six outs of the game. Skufca got three outs, with Falish making two solid catches in center field.

But in the bottom of the seventh inning, Watertown rallied again.

Noah Cole led off with a single and he stole second. Skufca got the next two outs, and was one strike away from ending it when Zach Fenner got an RBI single. That made it 12-10.

Keegan Lang hit a ground ball to sec0nd that Vandermissen missplayed.

So, that brought up Schuett, who had homered earlier and could have won the game for Watertown with another shot in this situation.

But Skufca caught him looking at a called third strike, and the Cubs escaped with their first win of this tournament.

Escanaba faces Manitowoc Sunday morning in the final game of this eight-team event. Game time is 11:30 a.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com, as soon as Chuch services end at about 11:45.

Click the above thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS section to see photos and videos from Saturday’s games, as well as from the Marquette-Marinette and Ishpeming-Green Bay contests.

Trent Schwalbach contributed to these game recaps.