Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Ben Johnson and Eli Gardner

MARINETTE, Wis.---They played on, and on, and on, and on, again some more.

The Escanaba Cubs and Manitowoc Legion baseball teams waged a heavyweight battle Sunday afternoon at the Firecracker Tournament in Marinette, Wis. The teams exchanged rallies, exchanged big hits, exchanged big pitches, and even exchanged errors and close plays, before Manitowoc emerged with a 9-8 win in ten innings.

Manitowoc later secured the outright Firecracker championship win later in the day when the host Marinette team was stunned by the winless Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox, 5-4, in another extra inning game (eight innings for that one).

But by far the most suspenseful, and most intense, game of the tournament was the Escanaba-Manitowoc match-up that lasted for three hours and 20 minutes.

Manitowoc entered the game with a 3-0 record, and had outscored its three opponents by a combined score of 42-2. The Cubs had lost a heartbreaking 2-1 decision to Marinette Friday night before winning twice on Saturday to set up Sunday's showdown.

Escanaba had chances to win the game in all three of the extra innings, but could not get the big hit against the Manitowoc bullpen.

“The game was just intense, and it was a dogfight,” Cubs third baseman Ben Johnson said. “I mean, ten innings! Obviously, we lost, but there's nothing to be ashamed of after that game. That's an outstanding team.”

“We capitalized on walks, errors, everything,” Cubs pitcher Eli Gardner said. “We played great baseball, but this team is outstanding. They're from Wisconsin, and once you get down here, it's a whole different ballgame. It's really hard to pitch around them, so it was just putting the ball in the zone and trusting the defense like I always do.”

In the eighth inning, after Manitowoc took an 8-7 lead in the top of the inning, the Cubs were given two walks and an error to load the bases, and then Chase Cloutier walked to force in the tying run. But with the bases loaded and only one out, Brice Blixt struck out and Adrian Mercier popped up, sending the game to a ninth inning.

In the ninth, Bon LaChance, pitching through a leg injury, hit a batter and walked another, but was able to get the third out of the inning when a pitch in the dirt escaped Cloutier behind the plate, but not very far. The runner, Reece Stangal, tried to score, and was easily tagged out to end the inning.

The Cubs had another chance to win in the bottom of the ninth when both Jack McEvers and LaChance drew walks. But the Cubs hit three pop-ups to Manitowoc's catcher (Stangal), and Escanaba was turned away again.

In the tenth inning, LaChance got the first out, but Bryce Erdmann got a base hit to right field. Bryce Blixt's throw from right field was a bad one, and then third baseman Ben Johnson threw it away, putting the go-ahead run on third base. The Cubs brought in the infield, and Brock Peterson delivered an RBI single to give Manty a 9-8 lead.

LaChance roared back with two straight strikeouts, as he looked much like the pitcher he was last year, before the massive control problems he had during the Eskymo high school season in the spring.

In the bottom of the tenth inning, the Cubs looked like they were done when Gavin Lettenberger struck out Nick Chiu and Cloutier to start the inning. But Blixt and Mercier both earned walks, giving the Cubs one more chance with Johnson at the plate.

Johnson, who had five hits in the two Cubs wins on Saturday, lofted a long fly ball toward the left field fence. Damien Gretz raced back to the warning track, turned, and made an outstanding catch to end the game, breaking the Cubs' hearts.

“I got a good swing on it,” Johnson said. “I thought I was burning him. I thought it was 'game'. Credit to that kid. He made a nice catch. Things happen.”

Earlier, the Cubs fell behind 3-0 in the first two innings as Manitowoc got six base hits against Escanaba starting pitcher Eli Gardner. But the Cubs took advantage of a walk and an error in the second inning, with Chiu getting an RBI single and Matt Kaven contributing a sacrifice fly. That made it a 3-3 game.

In the fifth inning, Escanaba trailed, 5-4, when LaChance came through with a long two-run double to the left-field fence. A wild pitch scored another run, and Escanaba led, 7-5, going to the sixth inning.

The Cubs could not hold the lead, though. In the top of the seventh inning, Nathan Stephany's ground ball was misplayed by Mercier at short stop for an error. Then with one out, Reece Stangal smacked an RBI double to make it a 7-6 game, and then Gretz singled in the tying run for Manitowoc. The Cubs went out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, so the game went to extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, with LaChance continuing to pitch, he issued a one-out walk to Bryce Erdmann. Erdmann stole second, then when he took off for third base, there was controversy. Cloutier whipped a throw to third that was wide, and Johnson, the third baseman, had to dive over to stop it from going into the outfield. Johnson and Erdmann collided as Johnson dove and Erdmann went into third base. The umpires called interference on Johnson, and Erdmann was awarded home plate.

LaChance walked two guys and hit another in the ninth inning to load the bases, but he was helped when a Manitowoc runner tried to score on a passed ball that was only a few feet away from Cloutier behind the plate. Cloutier tagged him to end the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs had another chance to walk it off when McEvers and LaChance both drew one-out walks. But Matt Kaven and Gardner both popped up to the catcher in foul territory, so the Cubs squandered another chance to win it.

Then in the tenth inning, LaChance got the first out, but the Cubs committed two more errors, and Peterson came through with the RBI single for Manitowoc. The Cubs made a total of nine errors in the ballgame.

The Cubs had another scoring chance in the bottom of the tenth when Blixt and Mercier both drew two-out walks, and that set up the final play that saw Gretz rob Johnson of a winning extra base hit by tracking it down on the left field warning track.

The Cubs finished 2-2 for the second straight weekend tournament, and the record now stands at 4-4 on the season. Escanaba takes on Bark River Wednesday night, travels to Marquette Thursday night, and travels to Gladstone Friday night.