RIVALRY REVENGE: Esky Repays Braves...Twice

Click the thumbnails to hear post-game interviews with Bon LaChance, Hunter Lancour, Jared Hanson, and Coach Scott Hanson. Also click the video to see LaChance's three-run homer in Game Two

GLADSTONE---The Escanaba High School baseball team avenged its earlier loss to the Gladstone Braves by sweeping a doubleheader Friday night in Gladstone, 6-1 and 6-2.

The Escanaba pitching aces, Hunter Lancour and Jared Hanson, both shut down the Braves and Bon LaChance continued his heavy hitting at the plate.

"We pulled away a little bit in both games, but those were both really tight games for like four innings," Escanaba Manager Scott Hanson said. "Two of the best performances you're going to see pitching-wise. Hunter and Jared showed why they're two of the best pitchers in the U.P. Gladstone's got a heck of a team. We gave them a couple of opportunities, but in reality, our defense was flawless."

In the opener, Lancour was locked in a pitcher's duel with Gladstone's Braden Sundquist for most of the evening.

Lancour helped his own cause with an RBI single to put the Eskymos ahead, 1-0, and it stayed that way until the fifth inning, when LaChance doubled home Scotty Hiller to make it a 2-0 game.

The Braves got a run back in the bottom of the fifth when Tyler Darmogray walked, and with two out, Cam Kelly got a single to left field. John Soderman then singled home the Gladstone run.

With the tying run at second base, Casey Alworden lined out to center to end the threat.

Kelly took over for Sundquist on the mound with the Eskymos clinging to a 2-1 lead entering the sixth inning. Ben Johnson got a one-out double, then walks to Matt Zimmerman, Trent Lawson, and Hunter Lancour brought in two runs. Hiller got a bunt single to bring home another run, then LaChance singled in another run to make it a 6-1 game.

Lancour got within one out of a complete game, but reached his 105-pitch count limit. Hanson came on to get the final out of the opener.

LaChance had three hits and two RBI, and Nick LaFave contributed two hits. Lancour ended up with a four-hitter, with six strikeouts and five walks. Sundquist took the loss, giving up two runs on seven hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked two.

"This was my last time pitching against Gladstone in my life, so I just went out there with a mentality to win," Lancour said. "Pitch good, pitch strikes, I know my D will have it behind me, and they sure did. Scotty Hiller made a great play out there in center field to stop two runs and didn't let them take the lead. Jared Hanson played great in the field. As a team, we just played great."

In the second game, Gladstone took a 1-0 lead much the same way they did the last time the Braves faced Hanson on the mound: a walk and a bad pick-off throw to first base.

Gladstone kept that 1-0 lead until the third inning, when LaChance doubled in Lancour, who had walked against Braves pitcher Brenden Detiege. The Eskymos grabbed a 3-1 lead on a wild pitch and a LaFave strikeout when the ball got away from catcher Nick Martin.

The Eskymos put it away in the sixth inning with a two-out rally. Lancour doubled to right field, Hiller had an infield hit, anf LaChance followed with a long three-run homer to left field to make it a 6-1 Escanaba lead.

"He started out with a ball and I knew he was throwing fastballs," LaChance said. "I timed it up good and turned on it. I knew it right away (that it would be a home run). It feels great, but we've still got some stuff to work on."

LaChance had five hits and six RBI in the doubleheader.

The Braves scored in the bottom of the sixth inning when Kelly walked and and scored on a line drive base hit by freshman Gavin Frossard. Frossard was the only Braves player to get base hits against both Lancour and Hanson in the doubleheader.

Hanson reached the 105-pitch count, and Hiller came in to throw. He gave up a single to Austin Bagwell, but Aedan Creten struck out to end the ballgame.

Hanson ended up with 11 strikeouts, and earned the win by throwing a two-hitter over 5 2/3 innings of work. He also walked five batters, and threw 49 balls amongst the 105 pitches.

"It's just that here in the U.P., being able to throw this hard, and my off-speed has been working, I'm being really successful with it," Hanson said. "I've got to pick and choose when I start off with a cutter, when I start off with a fastball, and it just goes batter to batter. It feels great because I know the first time, I didn't play the way I could have and should have. I had to come back. It was my last game against Gladstone. So it feels pretty great."

Escanaba improved to 13-6 in on the season while Gladstone had its ten-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 10-3 on the season.

"We've had a hectic schedule, but now, it's time to rest a few arms," Coach Hanson said about the lighter schedule next week, after Saturday's make-up game at Green Bay Preble. "It will give us an opportunity to play just one game a day, rather than doubleheaders."

Gladstone, though, will have a busier schedule, with a road game at Manistique on Monday and doubleheaders at home Tuesday and Wednesday against Superior Central and Kingsford.