MIDLAND, Mich.---The Escanaba Cubs first appearance in the American Legion Class AA state tournament in more than a decade came to an end on Friday with a 5-2 loss to Adrian Post 285 at Northwood University in Midland.
The Cubs finished the tournament with a 1-2 record, and closed a successful summer season with a 17-9-2 record. First year manager Chopper LaChance says it's emotional for the three super seniors, Adrian Mercier, Bon LaChance, and Eli Gardner.
“They didn't want it to be done today, in that game,” Coach LaChance said. “Boy, I'll tell you what. With any luck at all...we just could't get the timely hit. Today, we had bad luck, but what are you going to do?”
Cubs pitcher Ashton Rymkos struggled to throw strikes in the first inning, and gave up three runs, two of them on a Jalen Stelzer shot that went off of Rymkos' glove and through the drawn-in Cubs infield. Rymkos settled down from there, and kept the Cubs within striking distance until he reached (close to) his pitch limit in the seventh inning.
Escanaba got a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Graham Johnson, and the Cubs had several other scoring chances that fizzled out throughout the middle innings.
One man who did not have trouble hitting was Cannon Arnt, who went 3-for-3 from the ninth spot in the batting order. His RBI single scored Joey Garcia in the fifth inning to bring the Cubs to within 5-2. But they could get no closer.
“It was definitely fun, for sure, it just sucks to come up short,” Arnt said. “To win the first game and lose the next two, it's kind of sucky. Our hitting. Sometimes, we don't see the ball very well, like against Bay City yesterday, we couldn't hit at all. And we looked a lot of first pitch strikes. That was one of our weaknesses this year.”
Arnt, though, was able to have success against two Adrian pitchers.
“I was just looking for fastballs,” Arnt said. “I seen the ball pretty good today and trying to put in play. That's what I did and I got three hits today.”
The play that probably best sums up Escanaba's tournament run happened in the sixth inning when the Cubs had two men on base, looking to rally.
Johnson hit a hard ground ball up the middle, and Adrian shortstop Jack LaPorte did a full-out dive behind second base. LaPorte trapped the ball, then threw a strike to first base to get Johnson, ending the threat.
Bon LaChance had another base hit, giving him five hits in three games. But there were other guys who had either one, or no, base hits in the entire tournament.
“You keep waiting for it (lack of hitting) to turn around, and for Cannon today, it did,” Coach LaChance said. “Sometimes, you make a couple of outs, and even if they're hard-hit, you just, it gets in your head, and next thing you know, it gets in your head.”
LaChance, however, says it was the right decision to come down here to “play with the big boys”, rather than go to the Class A Legion or MVB tournaments.
“It's been a fun year,” he said. “I hope that there's enough kids to actually have a team next year. There's not a lot of 15, 16-year-olds in the program, so hopefully we can make it happen.”
