ALL WET: Escanaba Tourney Run Ends Downstate

ST. CLAIR, Mich.---The Escanaba Major Little League (age 11-12) All-Star baseball team had its state tournament run come to an end on Sunday with a 10-0 loss to Ash-Carleton in rainy St. Clair. The game was called in the fifth inning on the mercy rule.

The result left Escanaba with a 1-2 record and a third place finish in Pool A. The District 16 champions from Ash-Carleton went 3-0, outscoring their opponents, 27-1.

Escanaba, which won six games in the district tournament's loser's bracket to make it to this tournament, was unable to generate any offense in its three games in St. Clair. The boys struck out 32 times and had just eight base hits in the three games.

"We wasted all of our hits in the districts, I think," Escanaba Manager Paul LaChance said. "We got down here, and we just had a hard time scraping across runs. It was just tough. Going up against Nate (Young, from Gladstone) and some of the other guys in the U.P. that really throw hard, we came down here and we had a hard time timing the pitchers."

Escanaba's best chance to score came in the third inning when, trailing 2-0, Johnny Weinert led off with a single, and with two out, Eli Gardner struck out, but was safe when the ball got away from the catcher. Then Bryson Lancour smacked a single to left field to load the bases. Bon LaChance battled, but fanned on a 2-2 pitch.

"No timely hits," Coach LaChance said of his team's power outage.

Ash-Carleton had plenty of firepower, getting a solo home run from Cooper Nye in the second inning and a two-run base hit in the third inning from Chad Martin.

The game ended in the sixth inning on a couple of Escanaba errors.

Ben Johnson threw three innings, using 75 pitches to allow six runs on five hits and five walks. Lancour and Gavin Sommers finished up on the mound for Escanaba.

Nye threw 35 pitches to earn the win for Ash-Carleton, going 2 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and one hit allowed. Jaden Paquette finished up, throwing 2 1/3 innings.

Escanaba entered the game with a chance to make the quarterfinal round, needing to win, and allow four runs or less in the process. In the end, Coach LaChance's team got neither.

"The boys knew once they got to five runs, the other team today, that we weren't going to play tomorrow," he said. "I think they kind of gave up at that point. I know of 11 little boys behind me that can't wait for football now. Or golf!"

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Andy Johnson, plus hear post-game comments.