Escanaba Drops Ten-Inning Marathon In Marinette

MARINETTE, Wis.---The pitching has been fine.

The defense has been pretty good, too. But the bats have been mostly silent this weekend for the Escanaba Cubs at the Firecracker Tournament in Marinette, Wis.

After losing a pitcher's duel to Marinette on Friday, the Cubs missed numerous scoring chances and lost to the Green Bay Shockers, 4-1, in ten innings on Saturday. Later, the Cubs were shut out by DePere, Wis., 10-0.

That means the Cubs have scored just one run in 22 innings of baseball this weekend, and that run came in on a wild pitch with a man on third base.

Kind of a maddening result for Cubs Manager Tom Ohman, who has seen his team play pretty well, for the most part.

In Saturday's first game, the Cubs managed only two base hits and gave pitcher Brandon Punzel no run support against the Shockers.

The only run scored in the second inning when C.J. Barron and Jack Valentine both walked amd were bunted into scoring position by Sean Bissell. Barron scored on a wild pitch, and that was all for Cubs offense.

Green Bay tied it in the third inning when Punzel gave up a hit, walk, and hit-battmsan to load the bases. He coaxed Carson Martell to hit into a 4-6-3 double play, limiting the damage to one run. And it stayed a 1-1 game for about two more hours.

Escanaba had the bases loaded against Green Bay pitcher Taylor Bagiefski in the fourth inning, but Sam Hall grounded into a fielder's choice and Johnny Schlenvogt flew out.

The best chance to win it was in the bottom of the ninth inning when Bissell got a base hit (just the second of the game for the Cubs) and Hall was safe on a throwing error.

With the winning run on second, Schlenvogt roped one toward right-center field. Green Bay second baseman Martell jumped up and caught it, then threw to the bag for a double play.

By that time, Punzel had left the Escanaba mound (seven innings, one run, two hits) and Justin Popelka took over. He did well for two innings, but not in the tenth frame.

With two out and none on, Popelka gave up four straight base hits, with Jarrett Scheelk and Kris Kastberg each getting RBI singles. The Cubs could not mount a rally.

After a trip to the Marinette Applebee's Restaurant for a team meal, the boys returned to the field for a game against DePere. And it didn't go well for the guys in red, as DePere rolled to a 10-0 win in five innings. Escanaba had only two base hits: both of them by Jack Valentine, who was thrown out trying to stretch one of them into a double.

DePere's Emmett Kulick hit a pair of home runs on a the small Haase Field, with its 325-foot center field and 290-foot porch in right. Sam Hall pitched the first 1 2/3 innings and took the loss. CJ Barron finished upm and gave up the final four runs.

Escanaba returns to Marinette on Sunday to finish Firecracker Tournament play with a game against Pulaski, Wis. Game time is 11:30 a.m. ET/10:30 a.m. CT. The game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (600) and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS above to see photos taken by Kendra Ohman in the Cubs-DePere game.

MARQUETTE LOSES TOUGH ONE---The Marquette Blues lost to Marinette, 5-3, on Saturday, on a play that had a fair bit of controversy.

With the bases loaded and two out in the seventh inning, Marquette's Trevor Koski bounced the ball to third base and it appeared that Riley Lynch beat the force-throw to second base. Lynch was called out, however. Click the "VIDEO" button above to see for yourself.