NEGAUNEE — The Escanaba Cubs came up short on a few scoring opportunities here Wednesday night as they dropped a season-opening 3-1 American Legion baseball decision to the Negaunee Diamonds.

Esky loaded the bases with two out in the sixth inning before a running catch on a line drive by rightfielder Nico Lukkarainen ended the threat.

“That was definitely a game-saver for them,” said Esky manager Jon Bintner. “He had a few nice catches out there. I’m happy with the effort. We saw a lot of positives tonight. There will be some growing pains, but as long as we’re doing things the right way and play hard, we’ll be okay.”

Esky’s Conner Aiken tripled with one out in the opening frame before winning pitcher A.J. Suardini struck out the next two hitters.

Negaunee scored in the first, third and fourth innings before the Cubs got their run on a hard grounder to shortstop by Noah Lancour in the fifth.

The Cubs, who pitched by committee in their opener, host Midland Berryhill in the first game of the Gregg Johnson/Al Erickson Memorial tournament tonight at 6.

“We can’t be disappointed,” said Bintner. “We pitched different guys in each inning. When you’re just trying to get your feet wet, you can’t ask for more. With a four-day tournament coming up, we couldn’t pitch anybody more than one inning. We’re now up to 15 guys. All the pitchers threw strikes and got out of some jams, and Schyler Andersen did a nice job for us in centerfield.”