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Gladstone gets Major win over rival Esky

Little League baseball

Mark Johnson | Daily Press photo Gladstone’s Nathan Young, right, was the hitting star Sunday going 3-3 with three runs batted in and was walked intentionally in the 9-1 win over Escanaba at Karl Dickson Memorial Field. Esky catcher Eli Gardner awaits a pitch on Young’s at bat.

ESCANABA — Nathan Young pitched, hit and played stellar defense leading the Gladstone Little League Major (11-12) All-Stars to a 9-1 victory over rival Escanaba Sunday night in the area tournament at Karl Dickson Memorial Field.

Young was 3-for-3 in the game and was intentionally walked his last at bat.

He knocked in three runs, including a run-scoring single to give his team an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Young’s two-run single in the fourth inning upped the cushion to 4-0 following two walks and a bunt single by Austin Solis.

Gladstone coach Eric Hansen gave high accolades to Young and his team.

Mark Johnson | Daily Press photo Escanaba second baseman Johnny Weinert, left, and first baseman Matty Kaven get ready to play defense Sunday against Gladstone.

“He’s the leader of our team and he’s the biggest, strongest kid and we rely on him heavily,” said Hansen.

“The rest of the team played well and it was a good game for us.”

Young was the starting pitcher allowing one unearned run in the second inning with two hit batters and an error leading to Esky’s run making the score 4-1.

Munising beat Tri-County 13-0 in the other area tournament game Sunday scoring six runs in the first inning with only one hit.

Tyler Darmogray pitched in relief of Young in the fourth inning and threw two solid innings for Gladstone in the win.

Gladstone’s defense was a huge part of thwarting the Esky offense in the fifth inning.

Centerfielder John Soderman made a great catch at the base of the fence on a long drive into the swirling wind by Escanaba’s Ben Johnson for one out.

Then Young, now playing shortstop, made a diving stab of a ground ball up the middle and got up and stepped on second base for one out and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

“Nate (Nathan) is a very good player,” said Escanaba coach Paul LaChance.

“He had a big game and if we don’t walk so many and do not make the errors, it would have been a lot closer game. Scoring one run we are not going to win too many games,” said LaChance.

Johnson was the starter and losing pitcher for Escanaba throwing three innings and allowing four runs.

Gavin Sommers pitched the fourth and fifth innings for Esky and Bon LaChance pitched the sixth inning against Gladstone allowing four runs but only one earned run.

“We knew we had to throw a lot of strikes and eliminate the errors to beat a good Escanaba team,” said coach Hansen.

“We limited it to one or two errors and that was the difference.”

Gladstone advances in the tournament to tonight’s 7 p.m. matchup with Munising.

In the other Sunday game, Munising’s Blake Walter was 2-2 with an inside the park home run and scored three runs to lead the Mustang offense.

Coach Terry Kienitz of Munising used four pitchers in the game and it was the exact strategy he was planning.

“I have 5-6 pitchers and our plan worked to keep everybody under 20 pitches,” said Kienitz.

“We do a lot of small ball and base running and generating runs on offense and we did that today. We are looking forward to the playing either team (tonight) and we’ve battled both teams (Escanaba and Gladstone).”

Tri-County will play Escanaba at 5 p.m tonight at Karl Dickson Field in an elimination game.

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