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Cubs Drop Another Tight Game; Finish Tourney 0-4
 CLICK HERE to see details, photos of the Cubs' Saturday games. CLICK HERE to see details, photos of the Cubs' Friday night game. MARINETTE, Wis.---It was the same storyline for the Escanaba Cubs on Sunday as the Firecracker American Legion Baseball Tournament wrapped up. In fact, it was the same storyline that many of the Cubs players saw throughout the high school season. Good pitching. Solid defense. No clutch hitting.  The loss followed a tight loss to Marinette on Friday, and a ten-inning loss to Green Bay on Saturday. Only a 10-0 loss to tournament champion DePere broke the trend. On Sunday, the Cubs used three pitchers and stayed in the game until the end. They even had the lead for a while. But at the end, the lack of clutch hitting hurt once again. Justin Popelka, who threw 56 pitches in relief during Saturday's extra-inning loss, gave it his best on Sunday against Pulaski. But he only managed to pitch the first two innings. Still, he allowed just one run, on a sacrafice fly by Colton Agamaite in the second inning. Escanaba got that run back in the top of the third inning when Tyler Willette beat out an infield hit and scored on a triple by C.J. Barron. But here comes the "lack of clutch hit" part.  The left-hander from Bark River also threw on Saturday, but Cubs Manager Tom Ohman needed someone to eat up some innings. Hall gave up three straight hits to the middle of the Pulaski batting order, with Nate Otto getting the RBI hit. But Hall battled back to strike out the next two men....and ended up with three strikeouts in that inning. Escanaba regained the lead in the top of the fourth inning. Sean Bissell, Willette, and Parker LaMarch all got base hits to load the bases with one out. Barron drove in the tying run with a sacrafice fly. The Cubs then took the lead with a two-out double to the fence by Jack Valentine. However, LaMarch could not make it all the way around from first, stopping at third. He was stranded when Punzel flew out. That turned out to be big because Hall gave up two runs in the bottom of the fourth on RBI hits by Lane Kapla and Logan George. So, Pulaski had a 4-3 lead after four innings.  Bissell led off with a double in the top of the sixth inning and Willette moved him to third with a ground ball to second. But with the tying run at third, LaMarch struck out and Barron grounded out. Escanaba had one more chance, however, in the seventh inning, when Valentine got his second base hit of the game to lead off the inning. Pulaski switched pitchers, bringing Kapla to the mound. Kapla threw a one-out walk to Lamb, putting the tying run in scoring position. But the Cubs were turned away again when Schlenvogt struck out swinging and Tyler Skufca grounded out to second base to end the game. Escanaba ended up with nine hits, while Pulaski had eight. The Cubs, after finishing 3-2 last weekend in their home tournament, went 0-4 in this one. Escanaba (3-6) is on the road again Monday night, with a game at Spies Field against Menominee. Game time is 7:00 ET. The Cubs host Kingsford for two games Tuesday. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Sheila Olsen, as well as a video clip of CJ Barron's triple. 2016 FIRECRACKER AMERICAN LEGION TOURNAMENT Friday's Games at Pederson Ballpark Green Bay Shockers 7, Marquette 1 Pulaski, Wis. Menominee 2 DePere, Wis. 8, Gladstone 2 Marinette, Wis. 4, Escanaba 0 Saturday's Games at Pederson Ballpark Green Bay Shockers 4, Escanaba 1 (10 Inn) DePere, Wis. 13, Menominee 0 (5 Inn) Pulaski, Wis. 13, Marquette 3 (5 Inn) Menominee 10, Marinette, Wis. 2 Saturday's Games at Haase Field Gladstone 7, Pulaski, Wis. 0 Marinette, Wis. 5, Marquette 3 Green Bay Shockers 5, Gladstone 0 DePere, Wis. 10, Escanaba 0 (5 Inn) Sunday's Games at Pederson Ballpark Pulaski, Wis. 4, Escanaba 3 Marinette, Wis. 10, Gladstone 2 Sunday's Games at Haase Field Green Bay Shockers, 19, Menominee 6 (6 Inn.) DePere, Wis. 3, Marquette 0  |
