Click the AUDIO button to hear comments from Mak Pantti. Photos courtesy of Marquette Blues.

MARQUETTE---It was a big night for baseball in Marquette Wednesday night as the Marquette Post 44 Blues played against an alumni team of former Blues players, and then four people who helped to build the program were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The game saw the current Blues players cruise to a 12-2 win in six innings, making up for last summer's loss to the Alumni. But the highlight of the night was the four men who were inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame: former coaches Jack Reynolds, Bob Masuga, and Bill “Fink” Finkbeiner, and former player McKinley Larson.

“It was a good game and my boys played well,” Marquette Manager Mark Pantti said of the game, and then added, “It's just a fun event, you know, bringing all the guys back from generations of Blues. Coach Swaj (Derek Swajanen), Coach Fink (Bill Finkbeiner), Coach Kostreva was there tonight, so, it was just a fun night.”

Masuga was the driving force not only in establishing the Blues baseball program, but also got the ball rolling on a field that is now one of the best in all of Michigan.

“Out of his own pocket, he built our concession stand, the dugouts, and kind of got this era of the Blues at Haley Field going,” Pantti said. “He was a long-term manager and made a lot of good runs. One of the first to get Swaj introduced as a coach as well. It was good to have him, and his wife, at the field, to put him into the Hall of Fame.”

Swajanen, who was the first inductee last year, was the Blues manager for more than two decades. And Finkbeiner, who's son Garrett played for the Blues and Bay College, and had a near-death experience before getting a heart transplant four years ago.

“He had a big hand in our 2015 and 2021 state championships, and his son Garrett is one of our alumni boys,” Pantti said. “Everybody knows, loves, and respects Coach Fink so much. It was a great addition to have him in the Hall of Fame this year.”

The third inductee was the late Jack Reynolds, who died in 2021 at the age of 74. He coached local baseball for 47 of those years, many of them for the Blues, and also was a scout for the Major League Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves. The complex that Haley Field is a centerpiece of has been named after Reynolds.

“You could never go by the park on a day that Jack wasn't there,” Pantti said. “And he had the same mentality at Superior Central. He helped to establish their high school baseball program (in 2002, one of the first in the U.P.). Just a great honor to have him in the Hall. His family turned out in droves tonight and it was great to see.”

The first player to be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame was MacKinley Larson, who was a big part of Marquette's 2015 Class A state championship, the first in team history.

Larson was the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 state tournament and helped the Blues to beat Gladstone, 13-3 and 4-0, in back-to-back title games that day in Escanaba.

In Wednesday night's Alumni Game, Blake Waltther and Gibby Jezewski both had two hits for the current Blues, and Braiden Noskey drove in three runs. Tristan Slater drove in two runs. Four pitchers: Isaac Sarles, Carson Belanger, Jezewski, and Owen Cardinal all threw 25 pitches or less to combine on a two-hitter.

Cousins Parker Maki and Dakota Maki had the two hits for the Alumni team. Justin Wenk, Pete VandenAmond, and Brenton Belanger threw on the mound.