Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Noah Lancour (24) slides into third base before Midland Berryhill’s Jeff Allen can tag him as Escanaba’s Schyler Anderson (back center) runs to second base and Midland’s Adam Randall (back left) and Conner Moe (back right) look on Thursday at Escanaba.

ESCANABA — The Escanaba American Legion baseball team faced a dearth of hits and a throng of errors here Thursday. The Cubs fell to Midland Berryhill 11-1 in six innings in their first game of the Gregg Johnson-Al Erickson Memorial tournament.

“Having your first opponent in a real game being Midland, is asking a lot of these guys,” Cubs’ manager Jon Bintner said. “Some of them are 15 or 16 years old, and they’re playing 18 or 19-year-olds. Midland is a true Legion team. There’s no 17-year-olds on there, and these guys are used to being in the World Series.

“The kids knew, and I think there was a little bit of a panic when you look around and see how big some of them are. So, instead of just playing your game, you kind of just let them take the lead. It’s something that comes with age and experience. It’s valuable experience to play a team like that. You see what your kids are made of.”

Midland (5-1) got off to a strong start in the first inning. A single, walk and hit batter loaded the bases. Another walk pushed in MIdland’s first run. Despite a strikeout, a line drive single by Ashton Cooley scored two more to give it a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the inning.

The Cubs responded in the bottom thanks to a walk and a bunt from Hunter Lancour, who reached on an error. Shortly after, a sacrifice fly by Jake LaFave scored Noah Lancour and cut the deficit to 3-1.

“They battled and scored a run in the first inning to make it competitive,” Bintner said. “I mentioned in our post-game talk the snowball effect. When you start doing a good thing, it can lead to a good thing and then another good thing.”

Both teams held each other off until the top of the fourth. Berryhill’s Gage Chapin doubled on a fly ball to left field. Shane Juday then singled on a fly ball to center to score Chapin. An error put Jeff Allen on first base, and inexperience from the Cubs (0-2) allowed another run to score. Cubs’ pitcher Johnny Schlenvogt was called for a balk, allowing Juday to score and increase Midland’s advantage to 5-1.

“We always enjoy coming up here,” Midland manager Dan Cronkright said. “It looks like a real good tournament. I think there’s really good brackets on both sides. We came up here last year and had a really good tournament.”

Berryhill tacked on two more in the top of the fifth and four more in the top of the sixth.

“We need to limit our errors,” Bintner said. “We had four errors and two hits, and you’re not going to beat many teams with four errors and two hits. You got to be able to put things together, but we’ll grow as a team as the year goes by. There’s guys playing positions that they may have not had a lot of time playing during the high school season, or even the last few years. We’re going to have our growing pains.”

Schlenvogt took the loss for the Cubs over 5 2/3 innings, allowing 12 hits, four walks and 10 runs while striking out four. Zach Tyler pitched 1/3 of an inning in relief, allowing one hit and one run. LaFave led the offense with one hit and one RBI and Schyler Anderson finished with one hit.

Midland’s Brendan Beaver earned the win over five innings, allowing two hits, four walks and one run while striking out seven. Jacob Stone pitched one inning in relief, fanning three. Chapin finished with three hits, two RBIs and two runs. Ashton Cooley collected three hits and two RBIs, and Conner Moe notched three hits and one RBI. Juday grabbed two hits and one RBI and Stone added one hit and one RBI.

Escanaba hosts Chief Pontiac at 8 p.m., while Midland faces Marinette at Escanaba at 12:30 p.m. today.

“Our competition doesn’t get any easier,” Bintner said. “If we can put together a win and do well (tomorrow), we have a chance at three wins to get us to Sunday.”