Lancour, Eskymos Slip Past Mistake-Prone Knights

Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to see/hear interviews with Hunter Lancour, Nolan Amundson, and Norway Manager Tony Adams.

ESCANABA---Hunter Lancour threw four no-hit innings and the Escanaba Eskymos took advantage of four Norway errors and the Eskymos cruised to a 5-0 win over the Knights Thursday night. The Eskymos had only two base hits and Norway had just three.

Lancour needed just 58 pitches to work through four innings, and rebounded after walking two Knights batters in the second inning. He was relieved by Brett Schlenvogt, who gave up three hits in three innings of work but did not allow a run.

"It felt really good to get back out there," Lancour said. "It's been a couple of weeks since I've pitched. So getting back out there felt really good and having a nice day felt awesome. I was throwing pretty hard today. The curveball was working pretty good and I threw a changeup once in a while. but to the good hitters, I started out with a curveball and then I went pretty much with the fastball."

Escanaba scored three runs in the first inning against Norway pitcher Isaac Lorenzoni, but did not hit the ball out of the infield. It was a leadoff error, a hit battsmen, and three straight walks that did the trick. Matt Zimmerman's inflield single brought in an Eskymo run and Bryant Maki, who was hit by a pitch two straight times, scored on a wild pitch.

Escanaba scored its fourth run in the fourth inning on a delayed steal by Tyler Lawson, who was safe on an error twice in the game. The final run came in the sixth inning when Collin Arnt led off with a wlak and scored on an error. Arnt had Escanaba's only other base hit.

"I knew that we would have a tough time offensively (against Lancour)," Norway Manager Tony Adams said. "We just didn't get that timely hit. Pitching wise, when we stayed in the zone, they didn't hurt us. We hurt ourselves on some soft contact and some walks.

"But we've got kids in different positions (defensively) and we had a couple of hiccups and it hurt. Four unearned runs today? When we lose, that's been the bugaboo."

Lorenzoni threw two innings for Norway and took the loss without allowing an earned run.

Nolan Amundson threw the final four innings and yielded only one base hit, striking out three and walking two. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning but got no run support.

"We made a few errors and really couldn't get it done at the plate today," Amundson said. "I felt I threw good. The arm's been hurt recemtly but it didn't hurt today and I threw strikes. The fastball was really on today and I was hitting the corners. The curve was alight. I got it to work a few times. Just errors in the field killed us today."

"Our defense played great today," Lancour said. "Pitchers did great, me and Brett, and our defense was stellar all day. Nolan did great. He's a good buddy of mine, so it was good to see him do good."

Amundson's reply?

"He came in saying he was gonna strike me out, but I think I think I flew out and grounded out," Amundson smiled. "He did good today. The entire Escanaba team did good today."

Jesse Neumann had a single and Gannon Bray added a double, but Norway fell to 7-8-1 on the season. Escanaba improved to 18-5.

The Eskymos travel to Coleman, Wisconsin, on Friday, to face the Cougars. Game time is 5:30 ET and you can hear it live on WCHT-FM 93.5/AM-600 and www.rrnsports.com.