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Escanaba Girls Win Again; Gladstone Stays Alive
 GLADSTONE---Gabby Salo was overpowering again on Sunday, striking out 16 batters as the Escanaba Major Girls (age 11-12) beat Kingsford, 8-2, in an All-Star district tournament winner's bracket game. Earlier Sunday, Gladstone blanked Norway, 20-0, to stay alive. Escanaba won its third straight game, after also beating Gladstone (5-1) and Iron Mountain North (11-0). Those three wins qualified the Eskymos for the district championship game, which will be held on Wednesday afternoon in Gladstone. In the first inning, Dakota Cloutier's RBI double helped Esvanaba to grab the lead. The girls then got an RBI double from Nicole Kamin in the second inning, and Kelly Mae Casey ripped an RBI single in the fourth inning. Escanaba had a 5-0 lead. Kingsford was having trouble hitting Salo, who was also the winning pitcher in Escanaba's earlier district tournament wins. But the Kingsford girls took advantage of an infield error in the fifth inning and Jenna Springer slapped a two-run single to cut the lead to 5-2. Escanaba put the game away with three runs in the top of the sixth inning as the girls got four straight base hits. Casey's two-run single was the big one that made it 8-2. Annie McCole took the pitching loss for Kingsford, allowing eight runs on eleven hits in six innings. Salo also threw a complete game, allowing two runs on two hits. Gladstone won its game on the four-inning mercy rule. Details were not reported. Here are the tournament scores and updated schedule: Fri 6/27---Escanaba 5, Gladstone 1 Sat 6/28---Escanaba 11, Iron Mountain North 0 Sat 6/28---Kingsford 11, Norway 1 Sun 6/29---Gladstone 20, Norway 0 (Norway eliminated) Sun 6/29---Escanaba 8, Kingsford 2 Mon 6/30---Gladstone vs Iron Mountain North, 6ET (AM-600, rrnsports.com) Tue 7/1---Kingsford vs Gladstone/IMN winner, 6ET (AM-600, rrnsports.com) Wed 7/2---Championship: Escanaba vs TBA, 5ET (AM-600, rrnsports.com) Wed 7/2---Championship IF Game, 7ET WINNER of tournament advances to State Tournament in Boyne City. |
