Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Lexi Chaillier slides into second base as Cheboygan’s Angie Swiderek (right) reaches out for the ball and Zoe Chamberlain looks on during Tuesday’s Division 2 district quarterfinal at Escanaba.

ESCANABA — The Escanaba softball team took its first step down the playoff road, thanks in part to a perfect game from Gabi Salo. The Eskymos shut out the Cheboygan Chiefs 7-0 here Tuesday in a Division 2 district quarterfinal.

“I definitely feel like there’s a target on our back,” Salo said. “We won states last year, and everyone wants to beat us because we were the best team in the state last year.”

The Eskymos were first on the board in the first inning. Jalin Olson singled on a pop fly to score Lexi Chaillier that gave them a 1-0 lead.

“We had a couple errors in the very beginning that let them get a lead on us,” Chiefs’ coach Samantha Raymus said. “Escanaba just hit the gaps, but I think we played good defense on the balls that got hit to us.”

In the top of the second, Chaillier made a pivotal throw from right field to first base to deny the Chiefs (14-13) a hit.

“Lexi Chaillier put the no-hitter back on the table when she had that 9-3 put-out,” Esky coach Gary Salo said. “That’s why Lexi’s in right field. She’s one of the few kids who can make a read on a play, scoop and throw before anyone even realizes that they need to be moving.”

Dakota Cloutier singled on a ground ball in the second inning to score Nicole Kamin and increase Esky’s lead to 2-0.

“First of all, anytime we can scrape one of those first runs and get on the board is good,” coach Salo said. “We didn’t get as many hits as we wanted in the beginning, but we kept plucking away until we got to the bigger innings.”

The Eskymos (27-3) added two more in the fourth thanks to a double from Chaillier that scored Carsyn Segorski and Maddy Block.

Esky extended its lead further in the fifth on a solo home run from Salo, and it tacked on two more in the sixth to finish the game.

“Gabi extending and getting one to center field was great for her,” coach Salo said. “We had a lot of solid contact. We’ve been preaching to the girls — if we can continue to hit the ball well, play solid defense and keep pitching where it’s at, we’re a team that can make a run through this district.”

Raymus praised her team in a losing effort.

“Our plan was just to get our cuts in,” she said. “She’s (Salo) an amazing pitcher, and we needed to get the ball on the bat. We needed to play clean and hold them to as few runs as possible. We were putting the ball on the bat, but we just need a little better contact. I think we played them really well. It was just a couple in the beginning that got away from us, but other than that I think we did pretty good.”

Salo earned the win over seven innings with a perfect game and 15 strikeouts. Chaillier went 3 for 4 with two RBIs, and Kamin finished with two hits and two RBIs. Salo and Olson collected one RBI and one hit apiece.

Morgan Brandau took the loss for the Chiefs over six innings. She allowed 10 hits and seven runs (five earned) while striking out two.

Escanaba hosts Kingsford Saturday at 2 in the semfinals, with the championship game following at 4.