SEEING RED: Marquette Wins U.P. Championship

Click the above headline for photos, videos, listen to interviews, and how some Marquette players, led by Isaac Sarles, broadcasted the game.

MARQUETTE---The Marquette Reds American Legion Baseball team won the Junior Association championship on Sunday, winning a war against Norway, 2-1, in the semifinals, and then rolling over Kingsford, 12-0, in the championship game.

The semifinal game was a pitcher's duel between Norway's Cole Baij and Marquette's A.J. Martin. Ultimately, a couple of Norway errors were huge as Marquette picked up clutch two-out RBI base hits with two out in both the fourth and sixth innings.

Norway took a 1-0 lead in the firsr inning when Landon Amundson walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on an infield hit by Cam Varda.

That infield hit would be the only one that Norway would manage against Martin, who struck out seven batters in a complete-game effort. Martin also had great defense behind him, in particular, from second baseman Hayden Trepanier, who made a shoestring catch on a low line drive to end the fourth inning, and made a tough play for a 4-3 putout to end the fifth inning.

Marquette couldn't do much, either, against Baij, but they did just enough. In the fourth inning, Jack Siik came through with a two-out RBI single after Martin was safe on an error. Then, in the sixth inning, after Morgan Robar was safe on an error and Siik got another base hit, Weston Yesney came off the bench and deluvered a two-out, two-strike, RBI hit.

Martin calmly retired the Vikings 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, two of them on strikes.

In the other semifinal, the Kingsford Greens continued their surprise playoff run with a 4-1 win over Escanaba as Joey Weber worked in and out of trouble on the mound, stranding nine Cubs baserunners along the way. Three early runs were all the Greens needed, as Ashton Rymkos took the loss on the mound for Escanaba.

That set up a Marquette-Kingsford match-up, and right away, there was controversy. After Jack Spreen threw out the first pitch of the game, time was called, and Marquette protested that Spreen was an ineligible pitcher.

After a 15-minute delay, it was ruled that Spreen had made three appearances in the tournament (two are allowed), and in one of them, had thrown 33 pitched (above the allowed 30 to remain eligible).

Kingsford argued vehimently that Spreen had only thrown 30 during the appearance in question, but the argument fell on deaf ears. Spreen could not continue pitching, and the Kingsford manager was ejected from the game.

That pushed Noah Trulock onto the mound, and Marquette easily built a big lead with five runs in the second inning. Walks, hit batters, and wild pitches helped, and Marquette got hits from Martin, Aiden Steele, and Owen Cardinal during that inning.

The game lasted only four innings, with Steele getting a perfect game, returing all 12 Kingsford batters that he faced. The Reds put the game away with seven runs in the third inning.

Kingsford fell to 7-14 on the season, and while the playoff loss stings, the Greens will still play four more games: doubleheaders this Thursday against Escanaba, and against Gladstone on July 25. The Reds finished their season with an impressive 22-7 record, and many of the guys will bump up to the older Marquette Blues team for U.P. Finals next weekend.

Norway fell to 17-4 on the season and will play two ganes against Gladstone on Tuesday.