NO WAY? IT'S NORWAY! Vikings Capture UP Title

MARQUETTE---The brand new Norway Vikings American Legion baseball team made quick history on Sunday, winning the Upper Peninsula Zone Five Championship at Marquette's Haley Field. The first-year program dusted off two decades-old programs: the Eastern U.P. Wood Ducks (formerly the Travelers) in the semifinal, 7-3, and took down the Escanaba Cubs, 6-3, in the final.

The Norway American Legion Post 145, which to be fair does include some remnants of the established Iron Mountain Golds and Dickinson County Greens of the past few years, now advance to the state tournament, which will be hosted by Gladstone next weekend.

"I believe in all 14 of them," Norway Manager Tracy Haferkorn said. "There's not one hole in our bench. Everyone can play. Our plan is to win that state championship. That's our goal. We've reached the pinnacle here with the regular season and now we're tournament-ready. We want to be at the pinnacle next week as well."

It was an Against-All-Odds kind of day for Norway, with the team relying on its younger players at several positions, and the Vikings were rapidly running out of pitching arms. They went up against a Marquette team that was combined with some of the best Negaunee had to offer, and against an Escanaba team with kids from Manistique and North Central.

The Vikings, almost all Norway kids, battled through lack of hitting and a few defensive lapses to pull out two big wins, and elminate two of last year's state finalists in the process.

In the championship game against Escanaba, Norway pitcher Alex Ortman did his best to keep the team close. He allowed only three hits in four innings, striking out five, walking four, and navigating through 86 pitches. Then, it was a call to the bullpen, and a stunner: "old man" Nolan Amundson, who's been injured and certainly few thought would be available to pitch. And that includes Amundson, who has a year at St. Norbert College under his belt.

"I got surgery about May 16th, so I've been out for a while," Amundson said. "I've been stuck at first base. I told Coach Tracy that I thought I had an inning or two in me this weekend, but it didn't look like he was gonna put me in. Then he called my name, and I was ready, and I pitched three, and we came out with the win."

Amundson allowed one run on one hit and a pair of walks in those three innings of work.

Escanaba's defense was awful, to be blunt. The Cubs made seven errors in the game, leaving Eli Gardner on the hook to take the loss. Only one of the six runs against him were earned, and he allowed only four base hits in pitching a complete-game six innings.

Jack McEvers had two hits and drove in two runs for the Cubs, who finish their season with a 12-10 record. The Cubs were state runners-up last summer.

Ortman gets the pitching win, and Amundson gets the big-time championship save.

SEMIFINALS: NORWAY 7, EASTERN U.P. 3---Norway pounded out 15 hits in the victory, but the game was tied 3-3 until the sixth inning. That's when the Vikings scored three times. It was one of Amundson's little brothers, Hayden Amundson, who got the tie-breaking base hit to right field. Then big bro Nolan came through with a sacrifice fly, and Michael Peterson followed with an RBI single to left field.

Isaac Lorenzoni threw 5 2/3 innings of four-hit ball to get the win, and Ortman got the save over the final 1 1/3 innings (before he pitched again in the finals). EUP pitcher Garrett Gorsuch gave up six runs on ten hits and took the loss.

SEMIFINALS: ESCANABA 13, MARQUETTE 9---In a rematch of last year's state semifinal game, this time in the U.P. semifinals, the Cubs and Blues combined for 22 hits, and also combined to commit seven errors.

The Blues loked good early, scoring five runs in the second inning off Cubs starter Adrian Mercier. Marquette clubbed the Escanaba ace pitcher for four hits in that inning, including a two-run single by Gibby Jezewski and RBI hits by AJ Martin and Logan Peterson.

But Escanaba scored four times in the third inning off Marquette starter Brenton Balenger, with Ben Johnson getting a two-run hit and Matt Kaven adding an RBI single.

Escanaba took a 9-6 lead in the fourth inning with a five-run rally, with Bon LaChance clearing the bases with a three-run double. Then it was seven straight base hits for Escanaba in the bottom of the sixth inning to essentially put the game away.

Marquette finishes its season with a 13-12 record.