Escanaba Cubs Settle For Split At U.P. Zone Finals

SAULT STE. MARIE---The Escanaba Cubs opened the Upper Peninsula Zone Five Tournament on Thursday with a 13-3 win over the Marquette Blues at Sault Ste. Marie's James Field. That's the good news. The bad news is the Cubs suffered a power outage a few hours later on the Soo's small field, and lost to Menominee, 5-2.

So the Cubs will likely have to beat the host Eastern U.P. Travelers on Friday to advance out of pool play and into Saturday's semifinal round.

Against Marquette, the Cubs scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back. Austin Young and Nick Vandermissen led the offense by getting three base hits apiece.

Alex DeHaan threw seven strong innings for the Cubs, and Devin Olsen tossed the final two.

These are nine inning games at the Zone and State Tournaments.

"We played a good game," Cubs Manager Tom Ohman said. "We did have five errors, and that's a bad thing. We didn't let them capitalize. They didn't score until the fourth inning. And Alex threw well for us today, so that was good to see."

But things didn't go well against Menominee. Andrew Sedlar got the start, but there were four errors behind him and the Cubs got into an early hole. And then, they couldn't get any solid base hits, although Vandermissen did get a solo home run.

"I think that playing on that small field hurt us," Ohman said, after the game scheduled for Rudyard was moved due to Wednesday night's rain. "We just kept hitting the ball right at their outfielders. We couldn't get anything going with one out."

Sedlar went 5 2/3 innings on the mound and took the loss. Ben Kleiman pitched the final 2 1/3 innings in relief for the Cubs (11-13 overall, 1-1 tournament).

"Sedlar threw a good game," Ohman said. "We just had too many errors behind him."

The tournament schedule/results is posted below.

Click the thumbnails in the "ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS" box to see photos taken at the game by Kym Frazer.

2012 Upper Peninsula Zone Tournament
At Sault Ste. Marie


Pool A (Top 2 advance)
Menominee.....................................1-0
Eastern U.P.....................................1-0
Escanaba........................................1-1
Marquette.......................................0-2

Pool B (Top 2 advance)
Kingsford........................................1-0
Gladstone........................................1-0
Hancock..........................................0-1
Channing.........................................0-1

Thursday, July 26, 2012
Escanaba 13, Marquette 3
Kingsford 3, Channing 1
Gladstone 9, Hancock 6
Menominee 5, Escanaba 2
Sault Ste. Marie 2, Marquette 1

Friday, July 27, 2012
9:00 am @Soo---Gladstone vs Kingsford
9;30 @Rudyard---Hancock vs Channing
Noon @Soo---Escanaba vs Sault Ste. Marie
2:30 @Rudyard---Marquette vs Menominee
3:00 @Soo---Gladstone vs Channing
5:30 @Rudyard---Sault Ste. Marie vs Menominee
6:00 @Soo---Hancock vs Kingsford

Saturday, July 28, 2012
10 a.m.---Semifinal: Pool B #1 vs Pool A #2 @Rudyard
10:30---Semifinal: Pool A #1 vs Pool B #2 @Soo
1:30---Championship Game @Soo

NOTE----An additional game may be needed to determine the fourth U.P. team to make it to the state tournament. This would happen if Marquette is amongst the Final Four. This game would be played at 1:30 in Rudyard.


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