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Escanaba Major Boys Rally Past Portage Lake, 4-3
ST. CLAIR, Mich.---The Escanaba Major Boys (age 11-12) Little League baseball team made it to the state tournament by winning six games in the loser's bracket of the district tournament last week. The boys were in "comeback mode" again on Saturday as they trailed fell U.P. opponent Portage Lake by two runs in the final inning.
Escanaba had one more comeback in them as they scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull out a 4-3 win, staying alive in the state tournament.  The winning run scored, and although the boys didn't realize it at first, they kept their tournament run alive for at least one more day. "That was pretty crazy," Kaven said. "The first one was kind of low, so I didn't want to swing at that beacuse it was a first strike and I wanted to be pretty picky. The second one, I probably should have swung at." "I was pretty sure he was going to throw me a spin all on the last strike and he did," Kaven continued. "It didn't hit the sweet spot, and if they would've been playing normal depth, the kid would have caught it. But I got lucky and because they were trying to get a runner at home, and it went right over his head." "It was a tight game all the way through," Escanaba catcher Eli Gardner said. "We played tight on defense, and we held them throughout the game. We just needed to get more strikes, and make more contact (at the plate)." "We started playing as a team," Escanaba pitcher Bon LaChance said. "We had good hitters coming up. I knew we could do it."  "It was a pretty weak hit," he said, "but I'll take it!" Escanaba rallied against Portage Lake relief pitchers, after starterBryce Pugh reached his 85-pitch limit. Trailing 3-1, Cannon Arnt drew a one-out walk off reliever Kyle Primeau. Then Gardner took a painful fastball off of his shoulder, putting two men on. Then Bryson Lancour drew a walk to load the bases, and lefty Landon Stevens was brought in pitch. He walked in the second and third Escanaba runs with free passes to LaChance and Ben Johnson. Then Kaven got his walk-off pop fly hit. Portage Lake Manager Wes Frahm was disappointed in the outcome. "I don't know if there's a worse way to end a game, honestly," Frahm said. "You do everything right, but you just can't throw strikes. Kudos to Escanaba for hanging in there and doing what they did, but when you give it away, that's how we feel right now. We gave it away. We just couldn't throw a strike, and that's a really hard way to go." Escanaba stayed close enough to make the big rally by playing strong defense. Gardner threw out Ian Nordstrom trying to steal second base in the second inning. Then in the third inning, Bryon Kangas hit a lead-off double and went to third on a groundout.  Portage Lake took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning on a bases loaded grounder by Addison Hembroff and an RBI single to left field by Ned Larson. Escanaba finally got on the board when Gardner smoked a double to left field to bring Johnny Weinert home. Until that time, Escanaba did not have a base hit, and in fact, finished the game with just three. The Houghton-Hancock boys got an RBI single from Primeau in the fifth inning, but could not take advantage of Larson's lead-0ff base hit in the sixth inning. Portage Lake's three pitchers combined to allow just three base hits, and they struck out eleven Escanaba batters. But they walked ten batters and hit two. Escanaba faces Ash-Carleton Sunday at 11:30 in a must-win situation to make it through the Monday's quarterfinal round. The game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600) and www.rrnsports.com, starting at about 11:45. Portage Lake plays its final state tournament pool game Sunday morning at 9:00 against Taylor North Central. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Andy Johnson. Also, click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game interviews, and a radio replay of Kaven's winning hit.  |
