Click the thumbnails to see video highlights, and click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game comments from Brody Ison, Ashton Rymkos, and EHS Manager Scott Hanson.
ESCANABA---The Escanaba High School baseball team continued its weeklong homestand on Thursday with two more wins, beating the Negaunee Miners in both ends of a doubleheader, 10-0 and 12-3, at Al Ness Field.
Combined with a road win at Marinette on Monday, the Eskymos swept all five games the past four days to improve their season record to 6-3. Negaunee fell to 4-3.
These two teams will face each other in the first round of the MHSAA Division Two district tournament in Kingsford at the end of May, so both teams played their cards close to the chest in Thursday's doubleheader.
The Eskymos did not throw either of their top two pitchers (Lenny Peacock and Cannon Arnt). Neither did the Miners (Tristan Slater and Owen Cardinal). Otherwise, the teams both played to win, but the Eskymos were vastly better on this day in all phases of the game: hitting, defense, and pitching.
In the first game, Eskymo junior Brody Ison made quick work of the Miners, throwing three innings of perfect ball before allowing two hits in the top of the fourth inning. He struck out eight batters and ended up with a shutout as the game was mercied in the bottom of the fourth inning (it was a six-inning game). He used just 51 pitches,
Offensively, Ashton Rymkos and McKaiden Hughes both led the way in the middle of the batting order. Both collected three hits, and combined to drive in four runs.
The Miners got solid hits from Cardinal and Morgan Robar in the fourth inning, but any chance for a run ended when Aiden Steele hit into a 6-3 double play turned by Eskymo freshman shortstop Alex Irving.
Killean Ryan got the ball for the Miners, and was pulled in the third inning after giving up five runs on seven hits. Gaven Store pitched next, and also gave up five runs, before Braydon Gleason came on to yield the game's final run on a Bryce Bichler base hit.
In the second game, Ison came back to the mound, and had a tough first inning, walking three batters and giving up a run on a wild pitch. Ison bounced back by striking out all three batters he faced in the second inning, and he gave way to Brian Boutilier.
Escanaba took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when Rymkos launched a two-run homer in the third inning off of Miners pitcher Conner Munson. Negaunee regained the lead against Boutilier in the top of the fourth inning on a two-run single by Ryan, but the Miners lead evaporated in the bottom of that inning when Escanaba plated four runs.
In that rally, Ison and Hughes each had RBI hits, and then in the fifth inning, Escanaba scored five more runs, playing some “small ball” along the way.
Kaiden Pastorek had a bunt single (after also putting down a sacrifice bunt), and Bichler contributed a perfect bunt single up the third base line. Ison added an RBI double, and Owen Fields added a pair of run-scoring hits: one, a single, and the other, a booming double up the gap.
Fields also had an interesting play on defense in left field as he caught a shot off the bat of Gleason in the sixth inning. He came toward the fly ball, got twisted around (literally), and ended up making the catch with his entire dugout busting out in laughter.
Boutilier pitched the final four innings to earn the win for the Eskymos.
The first game, and early part of the second game, were played under bright, sunny skies, with comfortable temperatures in the 50's. As the second game moved on, dense fog moved in from Lake Michigan, and that dropped temperatures by twelve degrees. The rain held off, though, and the teams stayed dry as the second game ended.
These two teams will not only meet in the first round of the district tournament, but will also play in another doubleheader next Wednesday night in Negaunee.
MINERS HEADING TO MID: Negaunee Miners seniors Aiden Steele, Owen Cardinal, and Tristan Slater all signed with the Mid Michigan College Lakers baseball program at a ceremony in Negaunee.
