Eskymo Baseball Team Wins First District Since '16

Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos from Saturday's games. Click the AUDIO buttons to listen to game highlights, as well as interviews with Hunter Lancour, Tyler Lawson, Nick Kolich, Collin Arnt, and Eskymo Mamager Scott Hanson.

MARQUETTE----The Escanaba High School baseball team hoisted its first district championship trophy since 2016 on Saturday after a posting a dramatic 5-4 win over Cheboygan in the semifinals, and then topping Marquette, 9-5, in the championship game.

The result sends the Eskymos into the MHSAA Division Two regional semifinals Weednesday afternoon against the Petoskey Northmen in Petoskey.

And while the championship came Saturday night against the Marquette Redmen, the marquee match-up was in the semifinals as the Eskymos tried to knock off a talented Cheboygan team that had swept Escanaba earlier this season at Al Ness Field.

"I've had a lot of these kids since they were nine-and-ten year-olds" an emotional Eskymo Manager Scott Hanson said. "This was kind of a culmination of all of that. My gosh, the resilency that we had. Cheboygan is one heck of a team. For us to win that game was absolutely huge. I just can't tell you how happy these kids are and how deserving they are."

Early on, it looked like the Chiefs would get the upper hand as left=handed pitcher Caleb Williams was throwing gas. He was routinely throwing at 87 miles per hour, and had a breaking ball that crossed the plate at 74.

But he struggled early in the game to hit his spots, driving up his pitch count that would take him out of the game later on.

The Eskymos started Jared Hanson on the mound, who made a successful return to the mound after a season-long injury in the regular season finale against Norway. But on Saturday, he didn't have it, with a fastball that barely reached the mid-70's. Hanson walked two batters and gave up a hit, leaving with the bases loaded in the first inning.

That brought on Hunter Lancour, who himself was throwing in the low-to-mid 80's. He hit Tyler Balazovic to force in a run, but got a pop up to end the threat.

Williams had a scoreless first inning, but he went to a full count three times. That trend continued in the second inning when he walked Riley Lamb and Nick Kolich in lengthy back-to-back at-bats. Then Ben Johnson put down a perfect bunt for a single to load the bases.

Williams recovered to easily strike out Casey Bray and Trent Lawson, but Tyler Lawson worked the count full, and was clearly annoyed by several pitches from Williams in both at-bats that brushed him off the plate. Tyler Lawson got the pitch he wanted, smoking a shot up the gap to the left-center field fence, clearing the bases, and putting Escanaba in front, 3-1.

"That at-bat was personal," Lawson said. "It was a great at-bat, like an eight-pitch at-bat. My confidence is so high, and I know his confidence is high. It was just a great battle, and I ended up pulling through. This was probably one of the biggest games of my life."

"Man, that turned everything around," Lancour said. "That got us jumping out of the dugout That gor us going right away. After that, we were on cruise control for a while."

The Eskymos added a run in the fourth inning when Nick Kolioch drew a walk (again) on a 3-2 pitch, got bunted to second (again) by Johnson, and scored on a two-out single by Trent Lawson. The Eskymos had runners at the corners with one out when Hanson told Bryant Maki to get in a rundown between first and second, and send Collin Arnt home to score.

It didn't work. Arnt was thrown out at the plate he tried to hurdle catcher Dylan Balmzovic, then Maki kept tunning for third base and he was tagged out, ending the inning.

"A coaching snafu," Hanson admitted. "I was trying to make something happen and steal a few more. I knew Cheboygan would come back on us. They battled like crazy and they played their hearts out."

In the fifth inning, Lancour walked two batters and gave up a hit to Noah Demers to load the bases. But he got our of the inning giving up just one run on a Cody Borowicz grounder.

In the sixth inning, Lancour was pitching on fumes, and was the victim of the heat and the extremely hard surface of the Marquette junior varsity field (the Haley Field is under renovation). He walked Cole Hudson and Kaleb Blaskowski.

Henry Stempky followed with a base hit that took a terrible hop to load the bases, then Daniel Wilcome's pop fly to right field brought home the tying run. That was all for Lancour.

"Hunter Lancour was the savior of the day," Hanson said. "Not just pitching, but defensively and at the plate. What a day for Lancour."

"Well it was kind of short notice," Lancour said. "I came in with bases loaded and wanted to give up none, but I gave up one, and after that, it was all business and it was time to get going."

Arnt came on to pitch, and with the bases loaded, Demers smacked a shot right at Tyler Lawson in center. Then with two out, he got Borowicz to pop up to Nick Kolich at second. Kolich backpeddled into the outfield and caught the ball as he fell down into the grass.

In the top of the seventh inning, Johnson, a freshman, made perhaps the defensive play of the season. He went for a hard-hit ball by Balazovic. He ranged toward the third base side, and from the left field grass gunned it across to first baseman Riley Lamb.

That play, along with the two bunts in pressure situations, were impressive.

"What a day for the freshman," Hanson said.

"Yeah, it was nice to get that out," Lancour smiled. "But it was a good team win, overall."

"It's fun pitching when your defense is making plays, that's for sure," Arnt said.

The Eskymos came up in the bottom of the seventh inning with Stempky pitching in relief. He was throwing in the mid-80's as well, but hit Tyler Lawson with a pitch with one out in the inning. Lawson stoie second, and as Arnt walked, Lawson stole third base.

Enter: Hunter Lancour. With two strikes on him, he hit a bouncer on the infield. Stempky threw to first for the out, and Lawson took off for the plate. He slid in safely behind the catcher, and the Eskymos completed the upset with a wild celebration.

"I was just focusing on putting that ball in play," Lancour said. "That's all I cared about. Put the ball in play to end it. With Lawson on third, he's so fast, I can put that ball anywhere on the infield on the ground and he's scoring."

"Once I got on and get hit by that pitch, that was personal for me," Lawson said. "I bascially told their first baseman that once I come around and score, I was gonna let the pitcher know what he just did there. So, that was my mindset going there. Scoring, the whole time. Once I got to third, just put the ball in play. I'll score. I'll get there."

"I knew he was going to make the play," Hanson said. "I had no doubt in my mind that when he took off, he was going to score on that."

Arnt threw 21 pitches in 1 2/3 innings to earn the win. Stempky took the loss and Williams got a no-decision for Cheboygan, which finished its season 24-10-1. They had just five base hits.

In the other semifinal, Marquette won its second playoff game of the week by holding off Sault Ste. Marie, 3-1. Brady Wright's RBI single in the first inning was the only run of the game until Justin Wenk smacked a two-run single in the fifth inning to make it 3-0.

Wenk, the Marquette pitching ace, went six innings before reaching his pitch count. Wright came in with the bases loaded in a 3-1 game. He got Benn Swanson to hit one to short, where Peter VandenAmond got it, touched the bag at second, and threw to first for a game-ending double play. That set up an Escanaba-Marquette district final.

Arnt came back out to pitch, and struggled in the first inning, as he hit two batters and walked another. The Redmen got ground balls by Wenk and Jacob Knauss to make it 2-0.

"I started off a little wild, but I dialed it in and got them to hit it on the ground," Arnt said. "Trent (Lawson) just called a lot more fastballs and we were just getting ground balls, so it worked."

"I was a little bit nervous," Hanson admitted. "You can't celebrate too early."

But the Eskymos scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the lead against Wright, who also returned to the mound for the second time.

A couple of walks, an error, and a hit battsman tied the game, then Matt Zimmerman's two-run single made it 4-2.

In the second inning, the Redmen threw away a Maki bunt, allowing two more runs to score, then Kolich smacked a line drive single to left field to make it 7-2.

Kolich, another of the Eskymo seniors, lifted a triple down the right field line in the fourth inning and he scored on a solid base hit by Johnson.

Johnson added an RBI single in the sixth inning to bring home Escanaba's final run.

"I just wanted to make my quality at-bat worth it," Kolich said. "I'm not like a super-good hitter, so if I can work a walk, or at least put the ball in play, that's kind of a plus. If I can make them pitch to make them pitch to me and work two walks and score twice, I'm fine with that. After you get a couple of walks and you're seeing the ball pretty good, and his (Wright) speed was a lot slower, so I went back to the 33 (ounce bat) and I ended up getting two nice hits."

While the win over Cheboygan was the most emotional for the Eskymo players, for Kolich, the win over Marquette was also extremely satisfying.

"We just had to beat Marquette," Kolich said. "It was the same thing as hockey. It feels really nice after losing to them the last three years in hockey (regional final)."

Marquette scored two runs in the seventh inning off reliever Lamb, with Wright cracking an RBI double and Wenk adding an RBI single. But Lamb got a grounder right back to the mound, and he, another senior, made the play, officially sending the Eskymos into the regional.

Marquette finished its season with a 13-13 record, and two playoff wins for the first time in school history. For the Eskymos, it's a trip to the spacious and fancy Turcott Field in Petoskey, to face the Petoskey Northmen on Wednesday in the regional semifinal.

"That might be the most expensive field in the state," Hanson said. "It's absolutely gorgeous. But we've been there before. Some of the guys have actually played on it before. At this point, we're one game from playing in a regional final. From what I heard, Petoskey is going to be good, probably similiar to Cheboygan."

Petoskey won its district on Saturday with a 4-3 win over Gaylord in the semifinals and a 10-2 win over Kingsley in the championship.