Menominee Advances To State Championship Game

MENOMINEE---The Menominee Red Wave American Legion baseball team rallied from five runs down to beat the Gladstone Indians, 9-7, in a wild state tournament game Friday in Menominee. The loss sent the Indians into Saturday morning's losers bracket contest while Menominee advanced to the championship game Saturday afternoon.

Gladstone took an early lead when an error on a Zach Hanson ground ball allowed a run to score, and after Braeden Lamberg walked to load the bases, Tyson Seymour unloaded for a three-run triple to the left field fence, making it a 4-0 Gladstone lead.

In the third inning, Ian Schwalbach rifled an RBI single to center field, and it was 5-0.

But the Red Wave came back in the third inning against Gladstone starter Ben Kelly. An error on a double play ball up the middle put two men on for Menominee, and after Matt Delfosse singled to load the bases, Jason Janquart drew a bases loaded walk.

Kyle Struve followed with a two-run single between third and short to make it 5-3, then with two out, Jake Rivard hit a blooper just over a leaping Seymour at third base.

That tied the game at 5-5.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth inning. With one out, Lamberg singled, and Seymour was safe on an error. Dan Martin smacked a shot past a diving Struve in deep left field, scoring Lamberg with the lead run. And after the throw was cut off, an error on the throw to third base allowed Seymour to score, making it a 7-5 game.

In the bottom of the sixth, Cooper Cavadeas came on to pitch after Kelly made it through five innings on 98 pitches. Cavadeas had trouble throwing strikes, and a dropped fly ball in center field fueled a big Menominee rally.

The Red Wave scored four runs in that inning, sending ten men to the plate.

Struve got his fourth hit of the game to bring in one run, Janquart walked with the bases loaded (again), Jake Rivard was hit by a pitch to force in another run, and Kyle Porath walked on a 3-2 pitch to force in yet another run. Menominee led, 9-7.

In the top of the seventh, Menominee pitcher Bryce Tharp had only a handful of pitches left before reaching his pitch limit, but he managed to get the first two outs of the inning.

He turned it over to fellow Stephenson High School graduate Alex Hanson, who walked one batter, but got Zach Hanson to ground into a force play, ending the game.

Tharp ended up throwing 106 pitches, allowing seven runs (two earned) on seven hits. He walked four and struck out two.

Kelly got a no-decision for Gladstone, with Cavadeas taking the loss in relief.

Menominee, which entered the tournament with a 12-13 record and entered the state tournament as the host team, is now one win away from a state championship.

The Red Wave will play at 1:00 CT/2:00 ET on Saturday against either Gladstone or Gaylord.

Gaylord won two games on Friday to stay alive, beating Trenton, 4-3, and eliminating Hudson, 3-1, in a pair of well-played games.

The Gladstone-Gaylord game starts at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT, and will be broadcast IN PROGRESS on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600) starting at 12:00 noon ET. If the Indians win, they will be in the championship game at 2:00 ET, and that one would be broadcast live on AM-600 and on www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, videos taken by Cole Hansen. Also listen to post-game comments from Indians Manager Justin Jurek.