Indians Slip By Blues; Fall To Kimberly In Tourney

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Indians beat the Marquette Blues, 9-6, in the Gregg Johnson Memorial Tournament on Friday, but lost in the evening to the Kimberly Cougars, 7-4. The results dropped the Indians to 1-2 in the event.

Gladstone fell behind Marquette, 1-0, before taking advantage of some shoddy Blues defense in the bottom of the second inning.

Marquette made errors on consecutive bunt plays, and Carson Shea made them pay with a three-run homer to left field. It was Shea’s first-ever home run.

The Indians’ 4-1 lead didn’t hold up, however. Jake Soucey’s RBI single in the fourth inning brought the Blues to within 4-2, and then Marquette took the lead with a four-run rally in the fifth inning.

Blake Henriksen’s RBI double, a hit by Kyle Frusti, and a pair of Gladstone errors had Marquette on top.

But the Indians bounced back to score four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, as Ian Schwalbach doubled in two of the runs, then he came all the way around to score on a Blues error.

Cody Frappier’s RBI single in the sixth inning closed the scoring for Gladstone.
Caden Alworden threw five innings to earn the win, allowing six runs (three earned) on nine hits.

Parker Frappier tossed two innings of one-hit ball in relief, and earned the save. Frusti threw a complete game for Marquette, allowing nine runs (five earned) on nine hits.

Kimberly jumped to a 2-0 lead over the Indians before Gladstone scored three runs on four hits in the third inning to grab the advantage. Parker Frappier led off with a ground rule double to left field, then Schwalbach doubled him home.

With one out, Cooper Cavadeas tripled home Schwalbach to tie the game, then Jared Crow singled home Cavadeas to make it a 3-2 game.

The Cougars, however, hit Gladstone ace Shea hard, and the Kimberly defense made several nice plays, especially in the outfield.

Gladstone’s defense fell apart in the fourth inning, as three errors helped to bring home two Kimberly runs.

Then in the fifth, Kimberly took a 6-3 lead on a two-run triple by Kaleb Vandenberg. They added an insurance run in the seventh on a solo home run by Trenton Holz, which clanked off the left field scoreboard at Don Olsen Field.

Gladstone had chances to rally late in the game.

In the bottom of the sixth, Alwoden singled, Cody Frappier walked, and Ean Terrian came through with an RBI single.

That made it 6-4, and when Schwalbach walked, the bases were loaded for Shea. Shea, however, popped a fly ball to center field that was caught.

In the bottom of the seventh, Cavadeas led off with a hit, Dan Martin was safe on an error, and Crow was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

The rally was squelched, however, when Alworden hit one right back to the pitcher, who turned it into a 1-2-3 double play.

Ben Kelly was hit by a pitch to reload the bases, but Terrian struck out, ending the game, stranding the bases full for a second straight inning.

Casey VanAbel pitched the first three innings for Kimberly, but was lifted when the Indians scored their three runs in the third. Evan Johnson threw the next three innings, but was pulled in the seventh with the bases loaded and no outs. Holz earned the save by getting the final three outs.

Shea threw 6 1/3 innings for Gladstone and took the loss. He allowed seven runs on nine hits. Parker Frappier pitched the final two-thirds of an inning to wrap up the game.

Gladstone will close out tournament play Saturday against Copper Country.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos from the Marquette-Copper Country, Gladstone-Marquette, and Gladstone-Kimberly baseball games. Thanks Brad Landis!