Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Escanaba’s Gabi Salo throws a pitch during Saturday’s game against Gladstone at the Escanaba Invitational. Salo threw her first perfect game of the season, striking out 14 of 21 batters. Looking on for Esky is Nicole Kamin.

ESCANABA — Fastball or change-up, it didn’t seem to matter. Every pitch Escanaba’s Gabi Salo threw ended with the same result — nobody getting on base.

Salo threw her first perfect game of the season while striking out 14, and the Eskymos shut out rival Gladstone 7-0 in the Escanaba softball invitational here Saturday.

“I think everything was working for me. The umpire was really calling the outside corner, so I kept throwing the outside corner. If that’s what he’s calling, that’s what I’ll throw,” Salo said.

Doing it against a rival makes it a little more special.

“It feels good. They’re our rivals, and it’s a good game to do it,” she said.

Esky coach Gary Salo was happy she got the perfect game after coming close a few times earlier this season.

“She’s been snake-bitten a couple times this year,” he said. “We had Whitnall in a perfect game — they were the D-2 champs in Wisconsin last year. She lost a perfect game with a hit-by-pitch in the sixth, and then we played sloppy. We gave up two errors and gave them a four-out inning, and then they finally got the hit on her. She’s been snake-bitten a couple times so it’s good to see her do it here, especially to bounce back after last night (3-0 loss to Millington). If we clean up our defense and get the timely hitting we should be fine.”

The Eskymos (15-1) got on the board first on a sacrifice fly by Jalin Olson in the second inning, plating Nicole Kamin.

Salo helped her own cause in the third with a clutch two-out single with the bases loaded that scored Carsyn Segorski and Maddy Block. Olson followed that up with a two-run double to center field to make it 5-0.

Lexi Chaillier capped the scoring with a two-run homer to center in the fourth to extend Esky’s lead to 7-0.

“Our kids see the ball when we have runners on. You got to have the hits when the kids are on,” coach Salo said. “You can hit the crap out of the ball when there’s nobody on, and it doesn’t help. It just seems like our kids’ batting averages go up when we have runners at second.”

Kamin led the offense with three hits and two runs scored. Olson had one hit and three RBIs, Salo had a hit and two RBIs, Chaillier had a hit and two RBIs and Block had two hits.

The Braves (20-3) had difficulties adjusting to Salo’s pitching.

“It’s the first time we’ve faced her this year, and our timing was just a little off,” Braves’ coach Darin Hunter said.

“We’ve been working on the speed and trying to mimic it as much as we can in practice. I was impressed with us putting the bat on the ball, we just need to square it up a little bit sooner.”

Andie Balenger took the loss for Gladstone over four innings, surrendering five runs on six hits while walking three and punching out two. Morgan Letteriello pitched three innings, giving up two runs on three hits while fanning one.

“I think their pitching was good. There’s a couple calls that I’ll take the blame for where I tried to get a little too fancy on a play call. They put it where I asked them to, but unfortunately, Escanaba made the play on the timely hit,” Hunter said.

Gladstone’s Marnnea LaFave made the highlight play of the game with an outstanding running catch in right field in the third inning to save a couple runs.

It was the second win of the day for Esky, which beat Marshfield, Wis. 9-5 in its opener.

Esky led just 5-4 entering the sixth, but blew it open with four runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Chaillier had three hits, three runs and two RBIs and Dakota Cloutier had three hits and a RBI. McKenna Bullen had two hits and two RBIs, while Salo and Block each had two hits and a RBI. Segorski had two hits and Georgia Lehto had a RBI single in her only at-bat.

Kamin pitched four innings for the win, surrendering four runs on five hits while fanning one. Salo pitched the final three innings, giving up just one run on one hit while punching out five.

“Marshfield is a quality team. They have a ton of freshman and sophomores,” coach Salo said.

“Circle it. That’s a great game again next year that we’ll have. We had three great games here in the last two days with Millington, Marshfield and Gladstone. That’s what we’re looking for.”

The Braves lost their opener to Millington 13-3 after jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Taylor Trudeau and Jenna Tardiff opened the contest with back-to-back base hits, and Tardiff scored on a bases-loaded walk to Letteriello. Natalie Hansen then drove in Herioux on a groundout.

But the Cardinals came back with five runs in the bottom of the first, then blew the game open with a six-run sixth inning.

Tardiff had two hits and a RBI, while Letteriello and Hansen added one RBI each. Balenger pitched the first three innings, surrendering six runs on eight hits. Letteriello pitched the final three frames, allowing seven runs on seven hits.

“We started out strong against Millington. We put up two runs right away, but they came back and doubled us up,” Hunter said.

“We had the bad first inning and the bad last inning. But in between, I thought we held our own against them really well. We hit the ball solid, but Millington’s a tough team. That’s why they’re ranked No. 1 in the state right now.”

The Braves took down Rapid River 11-1 in their final contest.

Trudeau led the way with three hits while Tardiff, Herioux and Zeise all added two hits. Zeise also homered in the third inning. Balenger went the distance on the hill, surrendering just one run on four hits while fanning six and walking one.

Esky visits Marquette for a doubleheader today, while Gladstone visits Kingsford for a twinbill.