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Blues, Cubs, Red Wave Qualify For Legion States
 ESCANABA---Three Upper Peninsula American Legion baseball teams remain in this weekend's Zone Five Championships at Al Ness Field, and they all will travel to downstate Adrian for the Class A Michigan State Tournament next week. The Kingsford Blues continued to hit and pitch well, beating the Escanaba Cubs, 13-2, in Friday's winners bracket final. In the losers bracker, the Menominee Red Wave won two games to earn their trip to Adrian, eliminating Copper Country, 14-4, in five innings, and knocking out Marquette, 9-5. Earlier, Marquette eliminated Gladstone, 13-4. On Saturday, Escanaba faces Menominee in the 10 a.m. losers bracket final, with both teams guaranteed a spot in the state tournament. Kingsford will face the winner in the championship game at 1:00. If a second title game is needed, it will be played Sunday at noon (ET).
UPPER PENINSULA ZONE FIVE TOURNAMENT
Thursday's Results Kingsford 3, Marquette 0 Gladstone 6, Menominee 0 Kingsford 9, Copper Country 0 Escanaba 6, Gladstone 3 Friday's Games Losers Bracket: Menominee 14, Copper Country 4 Losers Bracket: Marquette 13, Gladstone 4 Winners Bracket: Kingsford 13, Escanaba 2 Losers Bracket: Menominee 9, Marquette 5 Saturday's Games Losers Bracket: Escanaba vs Menoninee, 10 a.m. Championship Game: Kingsford vs Esky/Meno winner, 1 p.m. Sunday's Game Championship Game #2 (If Needed), Noon THURSDAY'S RECAP For most of the first day of the Upper Peninsula Zone Five American Legion Baseball Tournament, the Gladstone Indians were getting almost unbeatable pitching. The Indians beat Menominee, 6-0, in the tournament opener, as Clay Cole took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. And in the night game against the Escanaba Cubs, Elliot Danhoff had his rivals handcuffed to one run through five innings of play. But then came the sixth inning. The Cubs got off the deck with five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to stun Danhoff and the Indians, 6-3. All of a sudden, Gladstone has been knocked into the loser's bracket, with a win-or-die game on Friday against the Marquette Blues. GLADSTONE VS MENOMINEE---- Against Menominee, Gladstone scored in the second inning to get the jump. Owen Hanson singled, Lucas Weinert put down a bunt, A.J. Lundberg singled, and then Noah Olsen singled to score Hanson with the first run. It stayed that way until the fifth inning. In that inning, Jake Peterson was safe on error, then Braeden Lamberg put down a bunt single. Ben Schwalbach also bunted, and no one covered first base for Menominee. So, the bases were loaded with no outs. Hansen flied out to short center, and Peterson got caught in rundown and tagged for the double play. That left runners on second and third, and wild pitch scored Lamberg with the second run. Weinert followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.
The Indians put it away in the bottom of the sixth inning with three more runs.
Olsen singled, Elliott Danhoff walked, and two wild pitches brought Olsen home and Danhoff went to third base. Jack Stephenson hit a sacrifice fly to score Danhoff with the fourth run. As the inning continued, Peterson singled, stole second and continued to third when catcher's throw went into center field because nobody got to the bag to cover. Lamberg then laid down a sacrifice bunt, and as he did, the pitcher threw it away. Peterson scored and it was 6-0.
The only suspense after that inning was if Cole would get his no-hitter. Unfortunately for him, Menominee's Mark Pulver got Texas league single with one out. It turned out to be Menominee's only hit of the game. Cole threw a complete game, walking five, striking out five.
For Menominee, Pulver pitched six innings, allowing ten hits and six runs (five earned).
ESCANABA vs GLADSTONE---- The latest chapter in the Battle of Delta County started about an hour late after morning rains put the start of the tournament on home. And it was an old fashioned pitcher's duel between Danhoff and Escanaba's Tyler Skufca....along with some excellent defense, including a diving catch by Hanson in left field in the second inning. Gladstone took a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning when Lamberg doubled home Peterson for his second RBI hit of the game. But in the sixth inning, Escanaba put together a big five-run inning, with Skufca helping his cause with an RBI triple. Logan Lamb also had an RBI hit. For the Cubs, Hunter LaMarch went two for three and scored twice. Tyler Willette had two singles and an RBI, and Skufca reached base three times in the victory. For Gladstone, besides Lamberg's two RBI hits, Hunter Botruff had a pinch hit double. Danhoff ended up allowing six earned runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings of work. He struck out six and walked three. Skufca yielded three runs on five hits, with six strikeouts and two walks. |
