BIG STEAL: Gladstone Indians Rally Past Escanaba
Click the thumbnails to see photos taken by Jayger Quinn.
GLADSTONE---The American Legion Baseball season officially began for Delta County's teams Friday night, as the Escanaba Cubs and Gladstone Indians faced each other at Gladstone's Don Olsen Field. The Cubs built an 8-3 lead, but could not hang on, and lost to the Indians, 9-8, on Tyler Darmogray's steal of home plate to end the game.
With Aedan Creten at the plate and the winning run on third base, Creten was asked to squeeze home the winner. The pitch was not buntable, but Darmogray was off and running from third base. He beat the throw to the plate, and the tag attempt from Cubs catcher Chase Cloutier, and scored in a big cloud of dust.
The Indians mounted their late rally thanks to a lot of help from the Cubs. Besides that final play, Cubs pitcher Ashton Rymkos, who had also played in the JV game, walked five batters in the sixth inning, including three straight with the bases loaded. That, along with a wild pitch, allowed the Indians to close to within 8-7 entering the final inning.
Escanaba had a chance to add to the lead in the top of the seventh inning after walks to Cloutier and Eli Gardner, but a pop up and a ground out ended the scoring chance.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Escanaba's Cannon Arnt struck out the first two men he faced, but Trevor Thorbahn reached base when the ball got away. Darmogray walked, and then Casey Alworden's bunt single, plus an error by Cloutier, allowed the tying run to score. Then came the next round of “small ball”, and Darmogray scored on a dead sprint from third base with Creten at the plate.
The game was a bizarre Escanaba-Gladstone match-up, with two Manistique boys playing on the Indians team who had previously played for the Cubs. American Legion rules only permit the Manistique boys to play for Escanaba if Gladstone agrees. The Indians did not agree for pitchers Isaiah Brow and Cooper Curtis, so they are now playing in Gladstone after playing the previous two summers in Escanaba.
Bryce Blixt, however, who has played in Escanaba for the past three summers, continued to play for the Cubs. Escanaba also has Jake Mileski and Lucas Hall from Bark River, because their Bucs team folded. And Adrian Mercier, who has played with three different Legion teams, continued with the Cubs.
Confused yet?
Escanaba had built an 8-3 lead behind the hitting of Gardner, who had a pair of doubles and a single, and Matt Kaven had a single, double, and drove in two runs.
The Cubs had eleven hits in the game, but still lost, because of five errors and ten walks.
The Indians had three hits from Alworden in the win.
Gladstone used four pitchers, and they combined to walk eight batters, making for a total of 18 walks in the game. There were also two hit-batters in the course of the lengthy game. Escanaba also used four pitchers.
There were also 14 strikeouts (seven for each team).
The Cubs and Indians will face each other again this Thursday night, this time at Al Ness Field, as the Gregg Johnson Memorial Tournament begins. Game time is 7:00. It will be broadcast on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.
Escanaba is also scheduled to host the Norway Vikings Wednesday night at 7:00 ET/6:00 CT. That game will also be broadcast on the radio as the Vikings team gets on the field for the first time since the Norway High School baseball team played in the state semifinals this past Saturday in East Lansing.
