Click the thumbnails to see videos from the game, and for post-game comments from Cannon Arnt, Bon LaChance, and Cubs Manager Paul LaChance.

MARINETTE, Wis.---The Escanaba Cubs American Legion Baseball team won the championship of the Marinette Firecracker Tournament for the first time ever, beating Manitowoc, 5-0, in the title game on Sunday at the Pedersen Ballpark.

Cannon Arnt threw a one-hit shutout in a game that was shortened to five innings by heavy thunderstorms.

“I feel amazing,” Arnt said. “The last couple of years, we came close. Took second or third, and, this year, it was big with Lennox (Peacock) coming to pitch against Marinette in the first game since we had lost to them a week earlier.”

Arnt had only one problem: the second inning, when he gave up a two-out double to Seth Gibeault and then walked Nick Braun. But with two men on, Arnt struck out Landon Chalupny to end the threat. Manitowoc only got two more baserunners the rest of the game, and neither of them made it to second base.

“I just hung the curveball and the kid hit the double,” Arnt said. “And then, the second kid, and he hit it (foul) 1-2 (count). Then, I threw my fastball and struck him out.”

Cubs first baseman Bon LaChance gave Arnt all the offense he would need when he crushed a two-run double in the first inning, just out of the reach of a diving Manitowoc center fielder Cade Voelkar. LaChance had been walked five times in the previous games in this tournament, and was also hit once by a pitch.

“It was fun to get some pitches to hit today,” LaChance said. “Honestly, I was just fighting the count. I had that lucky check swing and fouled it off. Just fighting and staying alive. I lunged at that curveball and it was an easy swing. Put the bat on the ball, and it flew away.”

That gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead, and LaChance later added a sharply-hit line drive into the left field corner that brought home another run, giving him three RBI on the day.

Arnt, meanwhile, helped his own cause in the second inning. Ashton Rymkos roped a triple to lead off the inning, and then Arnt squeezed him home with a nice bunt as the desperation Manitowoc throw sailed past the plate.

“Chopper (Manager Paul LaChance) just gave me the bunt sign, and I was like, ok, yeah,” Arnt said. “It was a perfect pitch. I saw it pretty good, bunted it to the right side, Ashton got home, and got safe.”

One bright spot for Manitowoc was the play of third baseman Gabe Eichmann. He made a stellar play in the second inning on a Cooper Curtis grounder that prevented a Cubs base hit, and then, later that inning, he dove and stopped a Luis Warmack shot that was ticketed to left field and would have brought in an Escanaba run.

Later, Eichmann turned a 5-4 double play on Isaiah Brow with two Cubs runners on the basepaths, preventing another run.

“He was great, and I told him that in the line when we were shaking hands,” Coach LaChance said. “I said, you're a magician at third, great playing.”

But Eichmann's brilliance at third base could not save the Manitowoc team, which had come into this game having allowed no runs in any of its three games in pool play. The Cubs simply dominated this game from start to finish.

“The team played great all weekend,” Coach LaChance said. “We don't have a lot of guys, but they're there for each other. They like playing baseball together. We had ten hits. I think that's the first game this year where we've had ten hits. Everybody was ready today, and that's great.”

The other Cubs run came home on a sharply-hit ball by Curtis in the third inning, over the third base bag, that brought home courtesy runner Owen Fields.

For Bon LaChance, this tournament win in Marinette had a little extra meaning, since the Cubs lost to Marinette on a walk-off balk in last week's Gregg Johnson Memorial Tournament in Escanaba.

“A little revenge tour is always great,” the Cubs first baseman said. “We're all feeling it right now. We're all happy about this win.”

The game was stopped with the Cubs batting in the bottom of the fifth inning, and then, moments later, the rain started pouring down and flooded the field. The game had already been delayed by almost two hours at the start because of morning rains, and because Manitowoc had already batted five times, it was declared a completed game.

Escanaba (13-2) will return to action on Tuesday night with a doubleheader in Kingsford against the Greens (3-3-1), who won Sunday over Crandon, Wis., in Felch. Game time is set for 5:30 ET and 7:30 ET, and you can hear both games on FM-94.3 in Kingsford, FM-93.5 and AM-600 in Escanaba, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.