Indians Hang On; Knock Cubs Into Loser's Bracket

HANCOCK---The Battle of Delta County was waged on a baseball field nearly 200 miles from home on Friday. But while the game was played far away from home, the two teams brought the normal intensity that comes with a Gladstone Indians-Escanaba Cubs game.

Gladstone built a 6-0 lead and then hung on to beat Escanaba, 9-6, to move to within one win of a state tournament berth. The Cubs, meanwhile, will have to win three games in the loser's bracket this weekend to also punch a ticket downstate.

It was a match-up of the teams' ace pitchers: Gladstone's Elliot Danhoff and Escanaba's Justin Popelka. And things went well for both Danhoff and his teammates early on.

Gladstone scored two runs off Popelka in the first inning as the Cubs made two errors behind him.

Lucas Weinert was safe on an error and scored when Hunter Garling unloaded on a pitch and crushed it to the center field fence.

It bounced over the fence for an RBI ground rule double. Next, Tyson Seymour walked, and as he stole second base, the Cubs botched the play as Garling broke for home. He scored, and Gladstone had a 2-0 lead on the Cub ace.

In the second inning, Gladstone took a 4-0 lead when Owen Hanson led off with a single, and rode home on a long double to right field by Braeden Lamberg. He later scored on a groundout by Garling, and it was a 4-0 Indians lead.

Danhoff was in complete control of the game, mowing down the Cubs in every inning, not allowing a base hit in the first four innings. Then in the top of the fifth, with one out, Jake LaFave hit a solid single to right field to break up the no-hitter. Still, Danhoff got out of the inning on a double play ball, and the Indians got two more runs in the bottom half.

Weinert led off with a single, and Seymour walked (again). Both came home on a two-run double down the right field line by Noah Olsen. So, it was 6-0.

Escanaba did not give up, however, as Danhoff started to tire as he crossed the 100 pitch mark. In the sixth, Jake Anderson led off with a single, and went all the way to third base when the ball was booted in right field.

Sam Hall followed with an RBI single, and he later scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2. But the Cubs stranded the bases loaded when Danhoff got two straight strikeouts to end the inning.

Danhoff ended up with 12 strike outs in six innings of work.

Gladstone rebuilt its lead to 9-2 when Popelka was pulled after throwing 109 pitches in five innings. Anderson gave up three runs, two of them on a bad hop base hit past second base by Garling.

It was 9-2, but it still wasn't over.

Zac Hanson came on to pitch for Gladstone, and things didn't go well for the youngster. Escanaba scored four runs, with two of them coming on RBI hits by Johnny Schlenvogt and Braden Olsen.

The bases were loaded, putting the tying run on base, so the Indians went to the bullpen again, bringing in another youngster: Quinn Downey.

Downey got Noah Lancour to fly out, and Zeke Strand to bounce out, ending the game.

Gladstone will face Copper Country on its home field Saturday at 2:00.

The game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600), and rrnsports.com.

Escanaba, meanwhile, will face Marquette in a loser's bracket at 9:00 in the morning.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Laura Lamberg and Sheila Olsen. Click the AUDIO button to hear post-game comments from Elliot Danhoff.