ESCANABA — The Escanaba Eskymos and Bark River-Harris Broncos wrapped up their regular baseball seasons Tuesday night at El Ness Field in Escanaba as the Eskymos earned a 10-0 win over the Broncos.
The win was the second in the span of a few hours for the Eskymos as they defeated the Menominee Maroons 7-0 in the resumption of a May 12 game that was suspended for weather.
With the win over the Maroons, Esky earned a tie with the Gladstone Braves in the final Great Northern Conference Championship standings.
“We got exactly what I was looking for playing games today,” said Escanaba coach Scott Hanson. “Obviously, we had to do the make-up for the conference, so sharing the GNCs. It’s no fun to share, but we’ll take it. It’s better than second place. So, two years in a row, I guess, back-to-back.
“Bark River played us really well for a couple innings, so I definitely got more out of these games today than what I would have in practice. So, that was really good for us.”
Both The Eskymos and Broncos were able to use the final game of the year as tune-ups for their respective district tournaments over the next 48 hours.
While Bark River plays in Norway today, Escanaba travels to Sault Ste. Marie Saturday.
In conjunction with district prep, both teams put several pitchers atop the mound throughout the game.
Escanaba had Jared Hanson, Ben Johnson and Trent Lawson all take a time atop the mound, while the Broncos started Travis Mack who was then relieved by Mason Bower with Lucas Hall closing.
Heading into Saturday, coach Hanson is feeling positive about where the team is at.
“The boys really came together, and team chemistry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last three weeks,” he said. “I’m just really happy with our season. I think we’re playing as well as anyone in the U.P. right now, and I think we definitely have the pitching to take a district title. It was a lot of fun last year, and we’d love to see that happen again. So, we’ll see what happens Saturday.”
The Broncos held tough against the Eskymos — who end the season 24-8 — for four innings, allowing a run apiece in the first, second and fourth innings before Escanaba opened up with a seven-run attack to end the game in the fifth.
“The one that ended it, obviously that one got away from us, but you also have to give them credit. They executed a nice suicide squeeze in that inning,” said Bark River coach Al Botwright. “We also decided to make some inopportune errors and throw the ball around, which is uncharacteristic of us. But, like I say, you have to give credit to Escanaba. They made things happen. They put guys on base, and we just couldn’t get out of the inning.”
After heading to shortstop after his opening two-inning stint pitching, Travis Mack put on quite the show with what can only be described as a Derek Jeter-esque play.
Mack fielded a ground ball with all of his momentum taking him toward third base. He then lept into the air, pivoted his body 180 degrees and used his arm strength to make the throw to first to get Escanaba’s Trent Lawson out.
“That is probably as good of a play as you’ll ever see regardless of where you’re at,” said Botwright. “That was for sure impressive. That was very well done.”
Botwright added his appreciation for Escanaba taking the game as well as his thoughts heading into today’s tournament in Norway.
“We appreciate Escanaba letting us come and play them, especially with them playing a make-up game against Menominee earlier,” he said. “We were looking for some game reps for sure, and we appreciate them letting us come over… Obviously, you’d like to win, but I like where we are at. … We’re optimistic.”
The Broncos will play today in Norway against the Manistique Emerald at 2:00 p.m. eastern.
Escanaba plays at 11:00 a.m. eastern Saturday with an opening game against the hosting Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils.
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