ONE MORE TO GO: Marquette Blues Mercy Flames
Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and hear interviews with Erik Johnson, Parker Maki, and Blues Manager Derek Swajanen.
MARQUETTE---The Marquette Blues American Legion Baseball team advanced to the state championship game on Friday, with an easy 10-0 win over the Copper Country Flames at Haley Field.
Erik Johnson barely broke a sweat, striking out 12 batters and allowing just two hits in five innings. And now the Blues will play for the ultimate prize on their home field Saturday.
"I mean, it's hard not to get excited," Blues shortstop Parker Maki said. "But we've got to stay focused. The job is not done yet."
On Friday, Marquette put the game away with six runs in the second inning as the Copper Country defense sprung a leak. They committed three errors in the inning and there were also a pair of walks in the bat-around inning. Marquette also got base hits from both Maki brothers as well as the Makis' Superior Central High School teammate Ky;e Frusti.
This was on top of a single by Johnson and a Jake Peterson sacrafice fly in the first inning.
All of that was more than enough for Johnson, who was overpowering in beating the Flames on the mound for the second straight meeting.
"He had 70 pitches, and 52 or 54 of them were strikes," Marquette Manager Derek Swajanen said. "That's a great ratio. Early on, we were debating whether to start establishing the curveball, but they never adjusted to the fastball and he did a nice job."
Copper Country's only base hits came in the fourth inning when Brandon Norkol and Reed Heathman got solid back-to-back singles. Johnson struck out the next six batters he faced to end the ballgame.
Nick Horning took the loss for the Flames, allowing ten runs (five earned) on seven hits and four walks over 4 1/3 innings. Pete VandenAvond's single to center field ended the game on the mercy rule in the fifth inning. The game, scheduled to start at 5:00, didn't start until 6:30 because of lengthy loser's bracket games played earlier in the day on Haley Field.
It was a rough loss for the Flames, who have made a remarkable run to the state's Final Three by pulling off four walk-off wins in one week's time (two in the U.P. Zone tournament and two more here at the state tournament).
Copper Country now must find a way to beat Rosebush out of Mount Pleasant in a loser's bracket final at 10:00 on Saturday. If the Flames win, they get another shot at Marquette in the championship game at 1:00 on Saturday.
For the Blues, they are one win away from what they're been looking forward to for years.
"I told the boys that a few years ago, we played a team in pool play and we beat them 19-1 and they came back and bit us (in bracket play)," Swajanen said. "Sometimes, you lose that momentum and you never get it back. And then you're just buried. But they (his players) have been really focused. The boys have been really focused since we lost 1-0 (to Escanaba in the Zone opener) and they've been playing really well."
The championship game will start at 1:00 and it will be broadcast across the U.P. on FM-100.3 in Marquette, FM-93.5 and AM-600 in Escanaba, and AM-1450 in Iron Mountain. It will also be broadcast live on-line at www.rrnsports.com and www.radioresultsnetwork.com/point.
