RIVALRY SPLIT: Eskymos, Braves Take Close Wins

Click the thumbnails to see photos and video highlights from the games.

ESCANABA---The Escanaba Eskymos and Gladstone Braves played a pair of one-run games on Saturday, with each Delta County rival taking home a win.

The Eskymos won the opener, 4-3, before the Braves took the nightcap, 7-6. There were plenty of twists and turns in both games as the teams played each other for the final time this season. The Eskymos are in Division Two for the playoffs; Gladstone is in Division Three.

In the opener, Escanaba scored first when Tyler Lawson led off the first inning with a single, stole second, and as he stole third base, the throw got away and he scored on a throwing error.

It stayed 1-0 until the fourth inning, when Gladstone scored twice to take the lead. Blalke Krouth led off with a hit, stole second, advnced on a wild pitch, and scored on an error. Trevor Hanson also scored on an error on the same play and Gladstone had a 2-1 lead.

Escanaba came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Nick Kolich led off by drawing a walk, and Brett Schlenbogt went way up to put down a sacrifice bunt. With two out, Tyler Lawson came through with an RBI single, then Hunter Lancour singled to right.

Then a wild pitch scored one run, and an error on the throw back to the plate got the second run home. All of a sudden, Escanaba had a 4-2 lead.

Gladstone tried a late rally when Cam Kelly led off with a double and scored on a two-out hit by Owen Trombley. But Ryan Polley bounced out to end the game.

It was a solid pitching performance for Escanaba's Collin Arnt. He threw all six innings (these were two six inning games) and allowed just four hits and three runs (one earned). Arnt struck out five and walked zero.

Braves pitcher Trevor Hanson perhaps deserved a better fate. He also allowed only four hits, struck out six batters, and gave up four runs (only two of them earned).

Lawson led the way at the plate forf Escanaba with two hits and two runs scored. He stole two bases as well. Gladstone had four different players with one hit each.

The game took just 1 hour 29 minutes to play. Escanaba held its Parent's Night program in between games, then the second game started after about a 45 minute break.

The Braves jumped to a 2-0 lead when Escanaba senior Riley Lamb, just back from missing six games due to arm problems, had trouble finding the strike zone. He walked three batters, threw a wild pitch that brought home a run, and yielded an RBI single to Kelly.

Ben Johnson came on to pitch for Escanaba in the second inning. He gave up back-to-back hits to Dylan Pepin and Aedan Creten to start the inning, and eventually balked home a run.

Escanaba got one run back in the bottom of the iunning on a walk, infield hit, and error. Then the Eskymos took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with a four-run rally, Two of the runs came in on a sinking line drive off the bat of Kolich, who fought off a 2-2 pitch and pushed it past a sliding Pepin in right field. Kolich ended up with a triple.

Johnson followed with a sacrifice fly to make it a 5-3 game.

But the game turned again in the top of the fifth inning. Braden Sundquist was safe on an error then Cam Kelly drew a walk. Polley was safe on an infield single to load the bases.

Tyler Darmogray then walked with the bases loaded, making if a 5-4 score.

Gladstone Manager Lucas Lacosse has been very aggressive with the suicide squeeze bunt this season, and that continued on Saturday. He was burned by one earlier when Darmogray couldn't get a bunt down and Kelly was tagged out at the plate.

But this time, Trombley pushed the bunt between the mound and and first base, bringing home Kelly. Polley kept running from second base and he also scored, and the throw to the plate to try to get him was wild, and Darmogray came in to score. Just like that, it was 7-5.

Mason LaChance kept plugging along on the mound for Gladstone, despite seven errors behind him on defense. One of those came in the bottom of the fifth inning to give Escanaba its sixth run as Bryant Maki was hit by a pitch, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on the infield error.

Gladstone got a leadoff single from Nick Martin in the top of the sixth inning, and a wild pitched moved him up to second base. Escanaba Manager Scott Hanson decided to intentionally walk Kelly, and it worked, as Polley struck out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the inning, the Eskymos got a one-out single from Lawson (his fifth hit of the doubleheader) and Lawson stole second (four of those on the afternoon). Lancour grounded out to move Lawson to third base, and Jared Hanson hit one deep in the hole between third and short that looked like it would plate the tying run.

Kelly, however, went over near third, got the ball, and gunned it across the diamond to get Jared Hanson at first base, ending the game, and launching a Braves celebratuon for the second time this week.

Mason LaChance pitched a complete game to earn the win. He allowed five hits and three walks, six runs (only three earned) on 103 pitches.

Johnson took the loss in relief for the Eskymos, giving up five ryns (four earned) on seven hits. He struck out six batters and walked three

With the split, Gladstone iumproved to 11-7 on the season. The Eskymos, who played five games in three days, improved to 16-5 on the season.