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Escanaba Bounces Back; Braves Fall To Cardinals
 ESCANABA---The Escanaba Eskymos bounced back from Friday's tough loss to Millington by winning twice on Saturday, beating the Marshfield (Wis.) Tigers, 9-5, and the Gladstone Braves, 7-0. Gladstone lost to Millington earlier in the day, 13-3, before Millington finished a perfect trip to the Upper Peninsula with a 10-0 win over Marshfield. In the Escanaba-Gladstone game, Eskymo pitcher Gabi Salo was overwhelming, pitching a 21-up-21-down perfect game, striking out 14 batters. She helped her own cause at the plate with a two-run single that made it 3-0 in the top of the third inning. Jalin Olson added a two-run double to center field during that inning to make it 5-0, and then Lexi Chaillier capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the top of the fourth. Nicole Kamin added three hits and Maddy Block contrubuted two hits for Escanaba. Andie Balenger took the loss in the circle for the Braves.  They got off to a sluggish start, with the game tied at 1-1 until the Eskymos scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning. Salo's sacrafice fly put the Eskymos in front, then McKenna Bullen smacked a two-run double to center field to make it 4-1. The Tigers responded with three runs in the top of the fourth, with Brianna Jakobi doubling home two of the runs. The thrid came home on an error. The Eskymos got an unearned run of their own in the bottom of the fourth to regain a 5-4 lead. Then in the bottom of the sixth, Carsyn Segorski led off with a single and rode home on a two-run homer by Chaillier to center field. That made it a 7-4 game. A Dakota Cloutier RBI single made it 8-4, and Georgia Letho's run-scoring hit made it 9-4. Marshfield got a solo home run from Jakobi in the seventh inning to make it 9-5. Nicole Kamin threw the first four innings for Escanaba, allowing four runs (one earned) on five hits. Salo tossed the last three innings, giving up Jakobi's home run.  They got off to a good start against Cardinal starting pitcher Sabrina Gates, with Taylor Trudeau and Jenna Tardiff getting back-to-back singles in the first inning. A bases loaded walk and a Natalie Hansen groundout made it a 2-0 Gladstone lead, but the Cardinals pounced quickly. In the bottom of the first, the Braves got unlucky when it appeared that a runner was tagged out by shortstop Sydney Herioux, but the girl was ruled safe. After a long delay as Braves Coach John Nevala protested, the Cardinals hit Braves pitcher Balenger hard, with Leah Denome smacking an RBI double and Madi Hahn adding a two-run double off the righy field fence. Gabbie Sherman added an RBI base hit as well. MILLINGTON 10, MARSHFIELD 0---Milington later went on to beat Marshfield, 10-0, with a five-run first inning. Darrien Roberts and Hahn both hit home runs for the Cardinals (19-2, #1 ranking in Division Three). Five different Cardinal players had doubles in the game, including Roberts, who had three hits in all. McKenna Slough added a pair of hits and three runs batted in. In the afternoon session, Gladstone played Rapid River for its third game of the day. Escanaba improved to 15-1 on the season and will travel to Marquette on Monday, while Gladstone's record dipped to 19-3. The Braves and Eskymos will face each other again in a doubleheader on Tuesday in Gladstone. First pitch set for 4:30. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos from the Gladstone-Millington, Escanaba-Marshfield games.  |
