Errors, Lack Of Hitting Dooms Esky Baseball Team

CHEBOYGAN---When you have a playoff baseball game that goes down to the wire, it's usually one, maybe two plays that determines the outcome.

That was the case on Saturday as the Petoskey Northmen eliminated the Escanaba Eskymos, 2-0, in the Division Two District semifinals at Cheboygan High School.

Eskymo senior Tim Lueneburg Saturday.

"I feel bad for the kids," Escanaba Manager Kirk Schwalbach said. "They wanted a shot at winning the district again, and we're not gonna get it."

"It's too bad," he continued. "We were lethargic today for some reason. The kids were in bed early last night. I don't know. If I could bottle it and sell it, I'd be a millionaire, I guess."

The game was a pitcher's duel between Escanaba's Devin Olsen and Petoskey's David Waterson.

The game was scoreless entering the fifth inning before one little defensive mistake turned into a really big deal.

Olsen got the first two outs of the inning to ground out, and then tossed a ground-ball pitch to Petoskey's center fielder, Nick Strobel. He hit a tapper to shortstop, and Tyler Skufca fielded it cleanly.

His throw to first base would have ended the inning, but it ended up well short of first baseman Bailey Lamb, and in the dirt.

Petoskey's Nick Strobel (9) is safe on a key error in the fifth inning on Saturday.

That error turned out to be costly because Strobel stole second moments later, and then Jordan Swiss ripped a base hit to score the game's first run. It was the third hit of the game for Swiss, the Northman shortstop and No. 3 batter.

Skufca was pressed into service at shortstop because the usual starter, Ben Kleiman, suffered a severe ankle injury Thursday in practice.

But Schwalbach is not buying that as an excuse for what happened.

"Skuffy has played there before," Schwalbach said. "Those are plays that you've got to make. I mean, this is high school baseball. It wasn't a tough play."

The situation got worse for the Eskymos as Mitch Smielewski hit one between Skufca and third baseman Tim Lueneburg for an infield single. And then, with that runner on third, Olsen threw a pitch into the dirt that popped away from catcher Sean Bissell.

I

Petoskey takes the lead with Swiss RBI hit.

t didn't go far, but Swiss was aggressive and scored as Bissell frantically tried to get back to the plate to apply the tag. That 2-0 lead felt like a 9-0 lead because of the way that Waterson was handcuffing the Eskymo batters throughout the ball game.

Escanaba had just three base hits in the game, and had no other baserunners as Petoskey did not make an error, and Waterson did not come close to issuing a walk.

Nick Vandermissen played his last game.

Eskymo freshman Brandon Punzel had two solid base hits, in the first and fourth innings. The only other hit was a pop fly single for Lamb in the seventh inning, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

Escanaba never had a runner reach second base in the game.

Olsen threw a complete game, giving up five hits, one walk, and two hit-by-the-pitch. Both runs against him were unearned. He struck out four batters.

"I feel bad for Devin," Schwalbach said. "He deserved better. He pitched a great game. He pitched a game that he definitely should have won, but we didn't hit the ball and we made some mistakes. Our bats were sleeping."

Petoskey did not win the district championship. Cheboygan did, after beating Sault Ste. Marie, 4-0, and then beating the Northmen, 4-2, in the district championship game.

Coach Schwalbach post-game comments.

Schwalbach says that despite Saturday's disappointment, he considers this baseball season to be a successful one.

"It was a good season," he said. "We were 16-7, and we lost four games by one run. We didn't win the district, and to me, that's what you judge your season on. In that regard, I'm disappointed. But they were a great group of kids."

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see photos and videos from the game. Thanks to Mike Dagenais for doing that!

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

4/20	10:45 AM	at Whitehall Vikings	4 - 2 (W)	1-0

4/20	6:00 PM	at Remus Chippewa Hills	12 - 3 (W)	2-0

4/26	5:00 PM	at Kenosha Tremper High School	3 - 14 (L)	2-1

4/27	1:00 PM	University School of Milwaukee	12 - 2 (W)	3-1

4/27	7:00 PM	Prairie Du Chien Blackhawks	12 - 1 (W)	4-1

4/29	5:30 PM	at DePere Redbirds	1 - 5 (L)	4-2

5/4	12:30 PM	Marquette Redmen	16 - 0 (W)	5-2

5/4	5:45 PM	Gladstone Braves	5 - 1 (W)	6-2

5/5	12:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	14 - 4 (W)	7-2

5/5	3:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox	13 - 3 (W)	8-2

5/7	5:30 PM	Marinette Marines	2 - 0 (W)	9-2

5/8	6:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	11 - 2 (W)	10-2

5/9	6:00 PM	Gladstone Braves	14 - 8 (W)	11-2

5/17	5:00 PM	Alpena Wildcats	3 - 4 (L)	11-3

5/17	7:30 PM	Alpena Wildcats	10 - 9 (W)	12-3

5/18	12:30 PM	Gladstone Indians	5 - 0 (W)	13-3

5/18	5:30 PM	Alpena Wildcats	3 - 4 (L)	13-4

5/21	4:30 PM	at Shawano Hawks	1 - 2 (L)	13-5

5/21	6:30 PM	at Shawano Hawks	3 - 2 (W)	14-5

5/25	10:00 AM	Shepherd	3 - 2 (W)	15-5

5/25	12:30 PM	Alpena Wildcats	11 - 4 (W)	16-5

5/25	2:30 PM	at Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	4 - 5 (L)	16-6

5/28	6:30 PM	at Gladstone Braves	3 - 3 (T)	16-6-1

6/1	12:30 PM	Petoskey Northmen	0 - 2 (L)	16-7-1