Click the thumnbals above to see photos from the Greens-Menominee game.

GLADSTONE---A successful baseball season came to a startling end for the Dickinson County Greens American Legion team as they were disqualified from the Zone Five Upper Peninsula championships after winning their first three games.

Dickinson County beat Menominee on Saturday for the second straight day, 15-4, and seemingly clinched a semifinal spot with a 3-0. The Greens were in the sixth inning of their game against the Eastern U.P. Wood Ducks and trailed, 7-2, when tournament officials suddenly stopped the proceedings and asked to see one of the player's drivers license.

It turned out that one of the Greens players was 20 years old, having turned 20 last week. The Greens thought that since he was 19 when the season began, the boy was legal to play. 

But the American Legion rules state that a player cannot have turned 20 years old at any point in the calendar year of 2021, and that meant that the Dickinson County team had to forfeit any game in which the player played. And since he played in all four pool play games, the Greens' games were all forfeits, and they were bounced from the tournament.

And because of that, a team that would have been a contender at next week's state tournament in Marquette, is suddenly done for the summer.

It was a heartbreaking end to what looked like a promising tournament run. 

Saturday's games started three hours late because heavy rain rolled into Delta County overnight Friday, and flooded the fields. The Escanaba field was flooded more severely than the Gladstone field.

The round of games in Gladstone started at around 1:00 ET while the games in Escanaba didn't start until 2:15 ET.

And the Greens took the field after the Eastern U.P. beat Gladstone, 1-0, and they knew that if they beat Menominee, they would be in the semifinals. Andrew Paupore started on the mound but ran into trouble, walking four men and being lifted after throwing 21 pitches.

Sean Durand relieved Paupore in the first inning on, and threw the rest of the way, using 99 pitches, and allowing only five hits. He gave up four runs, but only one of them was earned as the Greens committed four errors.

Durand was able to get the outs when he needed them though, as Menominee stranded eleven base runners, including the bases loaded in the fifth inning.

Dickinson County led just 5-4 going to the bottom of the fifth inning when Nathan Bousley came through with an RBI double to make it 6-4.

In the top of the sixth, Durand walked two men, but got a strikeout to end the inning with the tying runs on base.

Things fell apart for the Red Wave in the bottom of the sixth as the Greens scored nine runs. Menominee made four errors in the inning, and Red Wave ace Andrew Shroeder ran out of pitches. The game ended in the sixth inning when Ian Anderson crushed a three-run homer, seemingly sending the Greens into the semifinal round.

Iron Mountain did not need to beat the EUP Wood Ducks in the next game, but the Wood Ducks did need the win. And they played well, turning two double plays on defense and riding the pitching of Bay College pitcher Dalton Graham. 

Blake Julian, pitching with an injured shin, gave up an RBI triple to Graham and was lifted after 21 pitches. Gannon Bray and Henry McRoberts followed him to the mound, but had trouble with eight walks and three hit battsmen. And then, in the sixth inning, the Greens got the bad news.

It was all over.

The EUP will face Marquette in one semifinal on Sunday in Escanaba, while Menominee will take on Copper Country in the other semifinal in Gladstone.

Marquette finished 3-1 after beating Negaunee, 14-0, late Saturday night in Escanaba. Copper Country pulled out two games oin Saturday, beating Bark River in nine innings, 3-2 (after trailing most of the way 2-0). Then the Flames had an amazing comeback against Escanaba, after the Cubs took a 10-0 lead and the Copper Country walked off with a 15-14 win.

Menominee, meanwhile, played a meaningless game late Saturday night, and lost to Gladstone, 13-8.

The semifinal games both start on Sunday at 10:30 ET. The championship game is at 2:00 ET in Gladstone. The top two teams, plus Marquette, will face three downstate teams at the state tournament next weekend in Marquette.

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL U.P. FINALS