Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Gladstone’s Carson Shea slides back to third base as Sault Ste. Marie’s James Alexander runs toward the ball and Dalton Graham (back) looks on Friday at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — The Gladstone baseball team split with the Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils here Friday.

The Braves finished the opener in four innings, winning 13-2 after the Blue Devils led 2-1 going into the bottom of the third.

With one out, Gladstone’s Dan Martin singled on a ground ball to score Doby Gillis and tie it at two. The Braves tacked on one more right after when Zach Hanson scored on a passed ball. Cooper Cavadeas then doubled on a line drive to right field, scoring Drake Forrest and Martin.

The Braves (14-6) increased their lead to 7-2 when Cody Frappier homered to score Brody Sanville.

“The first game, we played pretty strong the first couple innings, but we made a mistake and lost our composure and dropped our heads,” Blue Devils’ coach Kris Bontrager said. “It got a little out of hand, but I was really happy with their resiliency.”

The Sault was unable to find a rhythm, and the Braves added six more runs in the bottom of the fourth to finish the game.

Lucas Wolf took the loss for the Blue Devils (3-13) over one inning. He allowed four hits and six runs (five earned). James Alexander gave up nine hits and seven runs over three innings. Alexander also notched one hit and one run.

Carson Shea earned the win for Gladstone over 2 1/3 innings. He allowed one hit and one run while striking out four. Ian Schwalbach pitched in relief, allowed one run and striking out four. Frappier led the offense with four RBIs, two hits and two runs. Forrest and Cavadeas both picked up two RBIs and two hits, and Martin notched one RBI, two hits and three runs. Schwalbach and Cole Hansen both picked up one RBI and one run.

The Blue Devils pulled away late and took the nightcap 5-4.

“Tuesday and Wednesday were our first days to get out on a field and actually practice,” Bontrager said. “I thought in the second game, we did a really good job of picking our heads up and bouncing back after we made a mistake.”

The Braves led 4-2 coming into the top of the sixth. Alexander walked, Garrett Brown singled and Jake Goetz took a base after being hit to load the bases for the Sault. After a pop-out, Austin Taylor grounded out to shortstop to score Alexander. Goetz was tagged out on a fielder’s choice, leaving Brown on third and Taylor on first.

Dillon Kinnear hit a fly ball to score Brown and Taylor and give the Blue Devils a 5-4 lead. Max Garchow then grounded out to end the inning.

Gladstone went three-and-out with three groundouts in the final inning.

The Braves took the lead in the second on a sacrifice fly from Cavadeas to score Forrest.

The Blue Devils answered back in the top of the third with a solo homer from Dalton Graham. They added another on a hard ground ball from Walcher to score Alexander.

The Braves took the lead back in the bottom of the inning. A solo homer from Gillis tied it at two and they tacked on two more to lead 4-2.

“Our pitching has always been good, and it was good again today,” Braves’ coach Kelly Shea said. “We hit the ball really hard in the first game. I’m real happy about that. We had a big error at the end that let them get a lead, and we kind of folded after that.”

Owen Rawlings earned the win for the Sault over two innings, allowing one hit. Tyler Walcher gave up three hits and three runs over 2 1/3 innings while striking out one. Taylor and Graham both collected one hit, one run and one RBI.

Caden Alworden took the loss for the Braves over one inning. He allowed one hit and three runs (one earned). Jared Crow pitched 2 1/3 innings and gave up no hits while striking out five. Riley Baldovski pitched 2 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on two hits, striking out two. Gillis collected one RBI, one hit and one run. Carson Shea went 3 for 3 and picked up one run. Martin and Cavadeas both finished with one RBI.

Gladstone travels to Escanaba Monday, while Sault Ste. Marie visits Escanaba for the Esky Invitational today.