Adam Niemi | Iron Mountain Daily News Escanaba’s Lennox Peacock delivers a pitch against Norway Tuesday at Norway during the Little League Minors District 10 tournament.

By Adam Niemi

Daily News Sports Editor

NORWAY — After scoring two runs in the sixth, Norway beat Escanaba 9-8 in a controversial ending in a Little League Minors District 10 tournament game on Tuesday night.

With runners on second and third with two outs, Norway’s AJ Gallino was down to his last strike before hitting a grounder to Escanaba third baseman Nolan Bink, who threw it to first base. The Escanaba bench, anticipating an out, began to celebrate. But the throw was just high enough to bring Ashton Rymokos’ foot off the bag. The runner, Carsyn Moore, was called safe.

Meanwhile, the Norway baserunner at second came around to score the winning run, prompting a walk-off celebration in Norway’s dugout and Escanaba coach Nick Chernick out of his dugout to dispute the situation. He and his two assistant coaches, Nick Bink and Jeremy Peacock, debated with the umpiring staff of three about the ruling for nearly 10 minutes.

Chernick said later that his point of contention about what unfolded was the lack of calling play dead as the call at first came under dispute, while it was unclear if play on the field was still live or dead. The waiting during the on-field discussion halfway between home plate and first base was suspended mostly in sheer, fatigued silence. The game had started 90 minutes after the scheduled 6 p.m. (CDT) start time because of a downpour about an hour before first pitch. An occasional “He was safe!” comment in the crowd was quickly met with “He was out!” or “Play should have been dead.” Onlookers said their peace without four-letter words or malice.

Then, Chernick turned and walked to his dugout and the umpires left the field having upheld the original ruling. Norway takes the game 9-8, eliminating Escanaba from the tournament.

“What we saw here is the lack of a call, first of all, by the first base umpire. No signal at all. He claims he verbally spoke it,” Chernick said. “The biggest problem was where they had a runner on third, that would’ve tied the game. They had a runner on second, this would have been the third out. He says he made the call and he was walking home to confer with the home plate umpire. What happened is they allowed the guy from second base to continue to run the bases and score the winning run.

“Play should have been stopped at the very least to do that, to make the proper call, to confer. Even if the other umpires didn’t see what happened, the correct thing there is to still stop play,” Chernick added. “To not make any signal and then claim that you made a call or something like that, it’s just wrong. The bottom line is, this game like any game, should be settled on the field by the players, not by a lack of professionalism– knowing the situation and being in charge of what’s going on.”

Chernick said he asked the umpires to return Norway’s go-ahead runner to second with the runner at first — returning the game to the moment after the tying run scored, when Chernick said play should have been called dead.

“At that point it’s still a tie game, there’s two runners on, there’s two outs,” he said. “Finish it on the field.”

Norway plays Kingsford at 6 p.m. CDT today at Marion Park.

“I didn’t see the play, but I was more worried about the second runner coming in to try to get that winning run in. I did not see the play. I don’t know what the controversy was over there. It’s tough to win or lose a game that way,” Norway coach Brett Baij said. “You never want to win a game on a controversial call or a call that the other coach doesn’t think was good, especially when you score two runs and win it. Obviously we’ll take it, we’re excited. We get to play another game. You hate to win it that way, you really do. You hate to see the kids’ disappointment on a call. But hey, that’s the way things go. I’m glad to be on this side of it.”

Until the game’s final play, Norway rallied dramatically to erase what was once an 8-2 deficit in the fourth inning.

Cole Baij led the sixth off for Norway with a single down the right field line. Mason Trudeau followed with a single. Owen Baij tripled down the right field line, scoring Trudeau and Cole. Maddex Burklund reached base on a walk and later stole second. Moore’s groundball to third base on a 2-2 pitch set up the controversial ending.

Escanaba took advantage of Norway’s quiet offense. The pitching was a key in building the lead, Chernick said.

Escanaba scored twice in the first and added six in the fourth.

Nolan Bink and Charley McInerney had two hits apiece for Escanaba.

Roles reversed for Escanaba and Norway after the fourth. Escanaba failed to get a hit after the fourth while Norway racked up six hits.

Chernick addressed the down-trodden players in the dugout after the loss, praising them for their effort and telling the team to not hold a grudge with Norway players or coaches – the end of the game.

Baij said the call would have been contentious either way. He said Escanaba’s coaching staff handled the situation with dignity and class.

“Escanaba’s a classy program. They’re not going to stoop down that low,” he said. “Hats off to them for handling it the way they did. They didn’t taunt us. They came up to us and just said congratulations and good luck. Nothing bad said between us and I appreciate that. I’m happy for them.”

The game’s ending underscored the challenging situations volunteer umpires can be dealt with in crucial games. Baij said the ending to Tuesday’s game isn’t easy for any umpire to make.

“Fundamentals are so non-existent at this level for the most part. A kid might be on one side of the base and he shouldn’t be, so he might be out of position. An ump might be out of position to call it, so it’s tough to see every play from every position,” Baij said. “I think a lot of calls could’ve went either way tonight. It’s tough being an ump, it’s tough being an ump in any sport, a referee. Especially here, everybody’s looking down on you at this field. Everything is up above, you’re right on top of it. Everybody can see everything that happens, so it’s tough to be an ump and have everybody bearing down on you, talking after everything, keeping your composure.

“I’m glad we have guys who are willing to do that. It’s a tough job, thankless job, to come out here and get yelled at for six innings,” Baij added. “No calls right, the coach is yelling about the same play or the next play. Crowd’s all yelling. That’s something we can’t control and we try not to control it.”