Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Eskymo senior Ben Johnson and both teams' head coaches.

ESCANABA---The Escanaba and Iron Mountain High School baseball teams took advantage of the unusually-warm early-April weather to play a game Wednesday night, and both teams used the opportunity to get many guys into the line-up.

It was not a clean game, as most in April are not, but the Eskymos emerged with a 12-3 victory in a game mistakenly called by the mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The teams combined to make eight errors, and there were multiple walks, but both head coaches took some positives from the contest. It was Escanaba's season opener, while Iron Mountain was playing its third game in 24 hours on Delta County soil.

“We haven't done live at-bats yet, so that hurt us today,” Escanaba Manager Scott Hanson said. “You're going to see some ugly at-bats this weekend, too (in Wisconsin Dells), but that's OK. There were a couple of situations that we can learn from. Missing signs. But, you know, you clean up that stuff early in the year. But, hey, the pitching was pretty solid, though. The fielding was a little shaky. We're fine. I'm happy. I think we're in great shape.”

“We did some good things tonight,” Iron Mountain Manager Jeff McLean said. “We had some base runners on and we had some opportunities (eight stranded). We've got some young guys out there who missed a few signs. We tried to bunt but we weren't able to execute. Overall, we did some nice things. The fifth inning kind of got away from us. Definitely made some progress.”

Escanaba made five errors on defense, leading to all three of Iron Mountain's runs being unearned against pitchers Lenny Peacock, Cannon Arnt, Eli Gardner, and Nick Chiu.

The Mountaineers started their ace, Niko Burgoon, and he left in the third inning after giving up two runs (one earned) on two base hits.

Freshman relief pitcher Charlie Anderson kept the Mountaineers in the game until the fifth inning, and Iron Mountain took advantage of shoddy Eskymo defense in the top of the fifth to score three runs, closing to within 4-3. Aiden Ellis had a double and Anderson singled home a run in that inning before Chiu got a fly ball to end the inning.

Then in the bottom of the fifth inning, Iron Mountain, which played a doubleheader in Gladstone the night before, ran out of arms. Ian Martilla came in and did not retire a batter, walking in two runs and throwing a wild pitch that scored another.

Eskymo senior Ben Johnson had a two-run single up the middle, and sophomore Brian Boutilier brought in two runs with a base hit to left field to make it 12-3. The scoreboard was off by a run, and both teams thought it was 13-3 and it was over on the mercy rule, when the game should have continued.

Afterwards, McLean was not upset by the mistake.

“We had the score wrong?” he laughed. “Well, we lost by nine on the nine-run rule, I guess. First game out of the gate, right? It is what it is.”

Johnson ended up with two hits and three runs batted in for the Eskymos.

“It felt amazing,” Johnson said. “I mean, you can't beat the weather at this time of year. Before Spring Break, we had a week of practice outside. We really focused on hitting all off-season. We're looking to keep going.”

Johnson had the defensive play of the game in the fourth inning when he robbed Evan Mendini of a hit when he went deep in the hole at shortstop on the third base side, got the ball, and fired an accurate strike to first base for the out.

“Bon (LaChance, first baseman) actually made a great stretch,” Johnson said. “It kind of came right to me. I was just able to cleanly field it and chuck it over.”

“Yeah, we had the chance to at least scare them a little bit,” McLean said. “But Bon makes the play over there. I mean, of course, anybody else, but Bon makes a heck of a play.”

Escanaba's Nolan Bink had two bunt singles and Boutilier also added a bunt single as Hanson turned to “small ball” in the middle innings to expand a 2-0 lead into a 4-0 cushion. That ultimately helped out, as the Mountaineers cut the gap to 4-3 before the fifth inning saw the Eskymos send eleven batters to the plate to end the contest.

McLean also praised Anderson for his pitching to keep his team in it, and catcher Jake Powell was tough behind the plate, stopping (literally) several dozen pitches in the dirt.

“We made him, for us, the player of the game,” McLean said. “He saved many runs for us tonight. Jake's gotten better every single year, He works on his craft. And we've got him for another year. It could have been a lot uglier if he wasn't as tight back there as he was.”

The Eskymos head to Wisconsin Dells for three games this weekend against Fond du Lac, Flambeau, and Lake Mills, Wis.

“What a super-good group of kids,” Hanson said. “We have good chemistry. They're hard-workers. I think we're going to have a real good year.”

“The competition is gonna be second-to-none,” Johnson said. “It's gonna be great. The weather should be nice, so I'm really looking forward to it.”