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Eskymos, Wildcats Split Twinbill; Tourney Saturday
 ESCANABA----The Alpena Wildcats and Escanaba Eskymos battled for 14 innings Friday night, with each side doing some good things...and some not-so-good things. In the end, both teams emerged with one-run victories. Alpena won the opener, 4-3, while the Eskymos rallied to win the nightcap, 10-9. 
Escanaba's Jeff Lyle and Alpena's Tim Atkinson share a laugh Friday evening.
And there were stretches of excellent baseball throughout the doubleheader, with both teams turning in several good defensive plays. But there were also defensive errors, walks, hit-battsmen, and baserunning mistakes at times, especially in Game Two. In the opening game, the Eskymos had a hard time getting timely hits and the Wildcats had a big fourth inning to take command of the game. Escanaba took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Brandon Punzel singled home Nick Vandermissen. But that happened right after Sean Bissell was thrown out at the plate trying to score on an Alpena error. In the second inning, Devin Olsen doubled but was stranded at second when Jeff Lyle popped up. In the third inning, Ben Kleiman beat out an infield hit, but was erased on a double play ball off of Bissell's bat. Then Alpena scored three runs in the fourth inning off of Olsen, who had struck out five Wildcat batters in the first three innings. 
Jake Rodman made several catches in left field during the opening game Friday.
The error loaded the bases, and Olsen hit Zach Nash with a pitch to force in a run. Brady Marwede followed with a sacrafice fly, then with two out, Dylan Hoes, who made two tough plays at short, singled home a run. The Eskymos got a one-out double from Bailey Lamb in the bottom of the fourth, but couldn't bring him home. In the fifth inning, Lyle was hit by a pitch and Kleiman singled. With runners at first and third, Kleiman got the wrong sign and tried to steal second base. Nash threw him out, and then Bissell flew out to end another threat. Olsen was relieved on the mound after five innings of work, bringing Tyler Skufca off the bench. He retired the Wildcats in order, and then Escanaba had yet another scoring chance in the bottom of the sixth inning. Vandermissen was safe on an error and Punzel walked. But with the tying runs on base and nobody out, Wildcat pitcher Cody Tucker got the next three batters. The last one, Jake Rodman, was robbed of a hit when Hoes caught his line drive at shortstop. 
Junior Devin Olsen threw five innings.
That turned out to be a huge run because in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Eskymos tried to rally against a tiring Tucker. Olsen led off with a walk, and Lyle got a base hit. Then Kleiman got his third base hit of the game to load the bases. Bissell hit a ground ball toward right field, but second baseman Mitch Skiba trapped the ball, spun, and threw over his shoulder to Hoes covering at second base to get one out. A run scored on the play, so Escanaba was within 4-2, with runners at the corners. Vandermissen hit a deep fly ball to center field, and it was caught by Glennie. Lyle tagged from third base and scored, but Bissell forgot how many outs there were. So, he kept running around second base, and all the Wildcats had to do was throw the ball back to first base to get Bissell for the game's final out. Tucker got the win with a complete-game effort, allowing three runs on nine hits. He struck out three and walked three. Olsen took the loss for Escanaba, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits in five innings of work. He walked three and fanned seven. 
Sean Bissell looks for the sign after reaching second base Friday evening.
And Sedlar got the ball for the second game, but struggled to throw strikes. He walked three batters and hit another as Alpena took a 3-0 lead. Sedlar was replaced by Alec Slaga on the mound. The bases were still loaded with one out when Slaga appeared, and he got out of the mess by retiring Alpena's #8 and 9 hitters. In the bottom of the inning, Punzel ripped an RBI double, but Lueneburg struck out with two men on to end the inning. Alpena manufactured another run in the second inning when Pintar singled, got bunted to second by Hoes, and scored on another hit by Fantasia. In the two games on Friday, Fantasia reached base in nine of his ten at-bats: five hits and four walks. But Alpena's 4-1 lead didn't hold up because Nick Skiba struggled with the strike zone of the home plate umpire. And he wasn't the only one, as the game featured 13 walks and five hit-batsmen. Skiba, and then Pintar in relief, allowed three runs in the second inning and the only base hit was a single off the bat of Slaga. 
Alpena's Dylan Glennie takes a big swing.
Then the Eskymos went up 7-4 in the fourth inning on two hit-batsmen, a walk, a Lueneburg groundout, and an RBI single by Ostrander. But Alpena came back in the fifth inning as Slaga, who did a nice job in relief of Sedlar, started to run out of gas. Nash, Hamp, and Andy Marwede all got singles to load the bases with one out. Jay Dutcher walked with the bases loaded, then Rodman came in to pitch with the bases loaded and two out. Hoes bounced one toward second base that took a terrible hop past Vandermissen. Two runs scored on the play, tying the contest at 7-7. Then Atkinson got an infield hit (when Vandermissen and Lamb both went for the ball) and the throw to Rodman covering the bag at first was wild. 
Alec Slaga post-game comments.
In the sixth inning, Alpena was looking to add to its lead when Rodman walked two batters as he also struggled with the strike zone. But he got some help from Lamb, who tracked down a pop fly deep into the right field foul area...and from Bissell, who made an outstanding catch near the Alpena dugout to retire Pintar. 
Nick Vandermissen is safe at second base.
Then Lueneburg was safe on an error at third base. Ostrander came through with a sacrafice fly to cut the Eskymo deficit to 9-8. That brought up Cam Beversluis, and the lefty came through with a base hit to right field. The ball got by the right fielder and Rodman (who was safe on a fielder's choice grounder thet erased Lueneburg) scored. That tied the game at 9-9, and Beversluis went all the way to third base. Kleiman then hit one to Hoes at short, and it should have ended the inning. But Hoes played the ball off of his chest and Kleiman was safe at first. It was Alpena's third error of the inning. All three of the unearned runs in that inning were charged to Fantasia, who came on in the fifth inning to be Alpena's third pitcher of the game. In the seventh inning, Kleiman came in to pitch and rolled through the 2-3-4 part of Alpena's line-up, striking out two of the boys. Some of the Wildcat fans became angry at the calls on balls and strikes in that inning, but the game ended without incident.  Vandermissen was also perfect at the plate in the nightcap, with a double, walk, hit-by-the-pitch, and RBI sacrafice fly. All of this served as a tune-up for Saturday's Binks Coca Cola Invitational at Al Ness Field. The Wildcats (16-3) will face the Negaunee Miners (12-6 after they swept Superior Central Friday night), at 10:00 Saturday morning. Then the Eskymos (12-3) will face the Gladstone Indians American Legion team (1-1) at 12:30. WCHT-AM (600) will broadcast the 12:30 game, and the championship game at 5:30. Those games will also be streamed live on-line at www.rrnsports.com. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see more photos from the doubleheader, taken by Sheila Olsen.  |
| Date | Time | Opponent | Score | Record |
4/20 |
10:45 AM |
at Whitehall Vikings
|
4 - 2 (W)
|
1-0
|
4/20 |
6:00 PM |
at Remus Chippewa Hills
|
12 - 3 (W)
|
2-0
|
4/26 |
5:00 PM |
at Kenosha Tremper High School
|
3 - 14 (L)
|
2-1
|
4/27 |
1:00 PM |
University School of Milwaukee
|
12 - 2 (W)
|
3-1
|
4/27 |
7:00 PM |
Prairie Du Chien Blackhawks
|
12 - 1 (W)
|
4-1
|
4/29 |
5:30 PM |
at DePere Redbirds
|
1 - 5 (L)
|
4-2
|
5/4 |
12:30 PM |
Marquette Redmen
|
16 - 0 (W)
|
5-2
|
5/4 |
5:45 PM |
Gladstone Braves
|
5 - 1 (W)
|
6-2
|
5/5 |
12:00 PM |
Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox
|
14 - 4 (W)
|
7-2
|
5/5 |
3:00 PM |
Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox
|
13 - 3 (W)
|
8-2
|
5/7 |
5:30 PM |
Marinette Marines
|
2 - 0 (W)
|
9-2
|
5/8 |
6:00 PM |
at Marquette Redmen
|
11 - 2 (W)
|
10-2
|
5/9 |
6:00 PM |
Gladstone Braves
|
14 - 8 (W)
|
11-2
|
5/17 |
5:00 PM |
Alpena Wildcats
|
3 - 4 (L)
|
11-3
|
5/17 |
7:30 PM |
Alpena Wildcats
|
10 - 9 (W)
|
12-3
|
5/18 |
12:30 PM |
Gladstone Indians
|
5 - 0 (W)
|
13-3
|
5/18 |
5:30 PM |
Alpena Wildcats
|
3 - 4 (L)
|
13-4
|
5/21 |
4:30 PM |
at Shawano Hawks
|
1 - 2 (L)
|
13-5
|
5/21 |
6:30 PM |
at Shawano Hawks
|
3 - 2 (W)
|
14-5
|
5/25 |
10:00 AM |
Shepherd
|
3 - 2 (W)
|
15-5
|
5/25 |
12:30 PM |
Alpena Wildcats
|
11 - 4 (W)
|
16-5
|
5/25 |
2:30 PM |
at Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils
|
4 - 5 (L)
|
16-6
|
5/28 |
6:30 PM |
at Gladstone Braves
|
3 - 3 (T)
|
16-6-1
|
6/1 |
12:30 PM |
Petoskey Northmen
|
0 - 2 (L)
|
16-7-1
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