MARINETTE, Wis.---The Marinette Firecracker American Legion Baseball tournament wrapped up on Sunday at the Pederson Ballpark.
Manitowoc won the championship, 4-3, over Watertown. Marinette took the third place game, 3-2, on a walk-off walk in the bottom of the seventh inning over Kimberly.
As for the Upper Peninsula's teams, the Escanaba Cubs lost to the Sault Ste. Marie (Canada) Black Sox, 3-1, in the seventh place game, and in the fifth place game, the Menominee Red Wave lost to Green Bay Southwest, 11-1, in five innings.
Escanaba's only run came in on a long single off the left field fence by Ashton Rymkos, bringing home Graham Johnson, who had doubled to start the inning. The Cubs hit into two double plays, eliminating scoring chances. Rymkos took the loss on the mound.
Escanaba, playing with mostly young, inexperienced players, went 0-4 in the tournament and had its overall record fall to 3-6 on the season.
The Black Sox, who have been playing together since May, improved to 17-18 on the season. Ty Cond drove in two of the three Black Sox runs, and Jacob Scornaiencki earned the win on the mound. He scattered seven hits and walked just one batter.
Menominee's only run scored on a sacrifice fly by Garrett Carlson. Chase Monette was the first of four guys to pitch for the Red Wave, and he took the loss, giving up five runs on four hits in two innings.
Miles Hunter hit a home run for Green Bay SW (4-6 overall) in the first inning.
Menominee finished 2-2 in the tournament, including a 12-6 win late Saturday night over rival Marinette. It was the first win for Menominee in four years over Marinette. The Red Wave improved to 4-6 on the season.
Marinette and Kimberly were scoreless for the first six innings before Brady Merzlicker hit a two-run homer to left field off of Marinette pitcher Levi Hanson. But in the bottom of the inning, Kimberly pitcher Jack DeLeeuw was charged with two errors on infield plays (one on a bunt) that brought in Marinette runs. And he walked in the winning run.
Hanson, who maxed out at 107 pitches, earned the win for Marinette, which improved to 10-3-1 on the season. Kimberly's record fell to 5-6 on the season.
In the championship game, Manitowoc got three hits from Benson Dickrell and Gabe Eichmann earned the win on the mound. Manty improved to 11-1 on the season, winning all four games in the Firecracker. Watertown's record fell to 5-5, with wins over both Menominee and Escanaba, and a loss to Marinette, in pool play.
