ESCANABA---Not even a great Gladstone pitching effort, a long lightning delay, or a live bat in the dugout could stop the Escanaba Major Little League All-Star (age 10-12) softball team from punching its ticket for the state tournament.
Escanaba lost to Gladstone, 2-0, in a typical rivalry match-up Tuesday night at Escanaba's Lemmerand Park. That forced a winner-take-all championship game, and Escanaba scored nine runs in the first inning and posted a 15-5 victory that will send the future Eskymos to the state finals in downstate St. Clair.
Escanaba will face the host St. Clair team in the state tournament opener on Friday, July 10, in the town located just outside of Port Huron. Escanaba will take on Petoskey and Bay County in its second and third pool play games, with the quarterfinals set for July 13 and the semifinals and final set for Tuesday, June 14.
Escanaba was in the driver's seat thanks to a 4-2 win over Gladstone earlier in the tournament, After the two Delta County teams eliminated both Kingsford and Iron Mountain North, it was back to the usual Esky-Gladstone match-up. And Escanaba needed to just win the first game, but for the fourth straight year at this age group, the district champion would need be decided by the third (IF) game.
Gladstone put together an outstanding effort in Tuesday's opener, with Maia Hughes throwing four scoreless innings to start, and Ellie Sanville adding two goose eggs on the scoreboard in relief. And after all of the back-and-forth, it came down to the bottom of the fifth inning, when Hughes smacked a double to left field and scored on a single up the middle by Sanville. The second run scored on a groundout.
That set up the usual winner-take-all championship game, and Escanaba came out ready to hit as huge, black clouds formed overhead. Escanaba sent 13 batters to the plate, and scored nine runs, with Maci Engebretsen smacking a two-run double and Barlow Bosk contributing a two-run double of her own.
When Gladstone came to bat in the bottom of the first inning, after a lead-off walk, umpires noticed lightning in the distance from a severe thunderstorm that was impacting northern Delta County. Even though there was not a drop of rain at Lemmerand Park, and the storm was 30 miles away, Little League rules are clear when lightning is detected anywhere near a venue: 30 minute delay.
And more lightning was seen in the distance, so the delay was lengthened. And during that time, the Escanaba girls started screaming inside the third base dugout. A bat crashed the party. No, not the kind that you use to hit a ball. A live one.
So, Coach Danicia Humbert took care of the situation, putting on gloves, and shooing the rodent out of the dugout.
Trailing 9-0, the Gladstone girls kept playing. In the third inning, Emersyn Whitney's two-run base hit helped to bring the Purple to within 10-5. But Escanaba put the game away with a five-run rally in the fourth inning, with Gen Fields and Ruby Jacobson getting RBI singles and Engebretsen added a sacrifice fly.
And so, it will be Escanaba as one of two Upper Peninsula teams that will represent us in the state tournament down in St. Clair. The other will be Marquette, which beat Negaunee, 10-0, Tuesday night, to win the District 11 district championship.
