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Indians ousted after early lead

Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Gladstone’s Dan Martin is congratulated by Gladstone manager Justin Jurek after a two-run homer against DePere, Wis. Thursday at Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Everything began to look promising for the Gladstone Indians in the early innings of their American Legion baseball opener here Thursday night.

That alone wasn’t enough to prevent them from dropping a 5-4 decision to defending champion DePere, Wis. in the opening round of the Gregg Johnson/Al Erickson Memorial tournament.

Carson Shea gave Gladstone a 3-0 lead on an error in the third inning.

A fielding error helped DePere (3-2) get on the board in its half of the third and back-to-back singles to right-centerfield by rightfielder Jackson Wall and catcher Brett Bradison tied the score.

“It was basically like a 0-0 game at that point, which is where we like to be,” said Gladstone manager Justin Jurek. “These are the kinds of games we expect to win.”

The defending Class A state champs regained the lead in the fifth when Parker Frappier scored on a passed ball.

DePere again drew even on third-baseman Collin Litts’ single to right-center in its half of the fifth and Tyler Blum scored the game-winner on a wild pitch in the sixth.

“These are the types of games we like to be in and we put ourselves in position to win,” said Jurek. “We were just one hit away.”

Gladstone had two baserunners aboard with two out in its half of the sixth, but was unable to capitalize.

The Indians stranded six runners and DePere left 10 on the basepaths in the contest.

Dan Martin’s two-run shot, which hit the scoreboard in right-center, gave the Indians the early advantage prior to gaining their three-run cushion in the third.

“We were glad to see him get a home run in his first at-bat this summer,” said Jurek. “Something like that always gets the team excited.”

The Indians finished with eight hits, including two each by Carson Shea, Martin and Frappier.

DePere collected 10 hits, led by Wall who went 4-for-4 and drove in a run.

Blum pitched 6 1/3 innings for the win. He struck out five, walked two and hit three batters. Ben Cherney then retired the final two hitters in relief.

Jake Rogers, who worked 5 1/3 frames, absorbed the loss. He fanned three, walked three, hit a batter and allowed rive runs on nine hits. Shea gave up the remaining hit and whiffed two of the four batters he faced in relief.

“For being his first outing of the year, Jake did very well,” said Jurek. “Only thing is his pitch count got up in the 90s. He probably hit a little fatigue.”

The Indians host Marquette today at 4:30 and Kimberly, Wis. at 7.

DePere meets Copper Country today at 11:30 a.m. in Gladstone, then returns to Al Ness Field to face Kimberly at 3.

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