• HS Baseball 4/25: Negaunee 10, Escanaba 9
  • HS Baseball 4/25: Bark River-Harris 11, Superior Central 1
  • HS Softball 4/25: Menominee 15, Bark River-Harris 0
  • HS Softball 4/25: Hancock 12, Norway 2
  • HS Softball 4/25: Houghton 10, Westwood 2
  • HS Baseball 4/25: Traverse City West 9, Sault Ste. Marie 3
  • HS Softball 4/25: Kingsford 15, Marquette 0
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Friday April 26, 2024
Eskymo Softball Team Plays Final Game Together

ESCANABA---It was not a game at Michigan State University. There was no chance for a third straight state championship.

But the Escanaba High School softball team played together one final time on Saturday, taking part in a game against a team of Eskymo alumni at Lemmerand Park.

And just like with anything that you're able to do during this crazy year of 2020, it was a blessing for everyone involved in the seven innings of softball.

The varsity Eskymos beat the Eskymo alumni, 7-2, but the final score mattered a lot less than just being together one final time.

The four Eskymo seniors each played for the last time on their home field, after also playing in the U.P. Senior games the night before. And in the seventh inning, one by one, the four Eskymos were pulled from the field, to loud cheers from the socially-distant crowd.

The game featured two top-of-the line pitchers, from two different generations. The varsity Eskymos had #8 in the circle, Gabi Salo, who led the team to state championships in 2018 and 2019, and was focused to do the game this spring before the pandemic flipped the world upside down.

On the other side was Lesley Delvaux, who as Lesley Noel played at Michigan State University after graduating from Escanaba High School in 2004,

Salo was her usual self, although the alumni executed two bunts and the defense sprung a leak in the first inning, allowing an unearned run to score against her. 2019 graduate Lexi Chaillier scored that run all the way from first base, using her blazing speed on the second botched bunt.

Otherwise, Salo pitched four innings, striking out eleven batters, and allowing just one hit: to 2018 graduate Taylor Gauthier, who plays at Division One University of Detroit.

Salo returned to the mound in the seventh inning after Emily Moore and McKayla Mott each threw an inning, and after Salo struck out Heather Bergstrom for the second out, she was pulled from the game for the final Abrahamson Field curtain call.

As for Delvaux, she still had it, despite being 16 years removed from high school. She struggled with walks, but wiggled out of trouble several times, throwing four innings, and allowing just two hits. One of them was an RBI single by Dakota Cloutier that tied the game at 1-1.

2017 graduate Katie Ross came to pitch in the fifth inning, and couldn't throw strikes, She hit three batters and ealked three others, and gave up a two-run single to future Ferris State University teammate, Cloutier. And Salo rifled an RBI single of her own.

Delvaux came back to the mound for the final two innings, striking out three and allowing only a Rylee Kuehl single in her second circle appearance of the day.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos.





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