MENOMINEE — Someone must have forgot to tell Keagan Monroe that 13 is supposed to be an unlucky number.

The Menominee Red Wave pitcher was dominant, allowing only five hits, three earned runs and two walks against 13 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings in a 5-3 victory over the Escanaba Cubs Tuesday night at Spies Field.

Monroe set the tone for the Red Wave early, striking out the side to begin the game and fanning 10 batters before issuing his first walk.

“Keagan was the difference for us tonight,” Menominee coach John Lauzer said.

Menominee opened up its half of the first inning with first baseman Alex Hanson taking first base on a walk. Jason Janquart slapped a single to move Hanson to third before stealing second himself, and an error by Escanaba put catcher Buddy Beyer on first. Monroe then stepped into the box with the bases loaded, popped up, and promptly watched as Escanaba was unable to field the ball, allowing all three base runners to score and giving the Red Wave an early 3-0 lead.

“The error on that routine fly ball really killed us,” Escanaba coach John Bintner said.

“Overall, both teams played a really clean game of baseball. Mistakes like that can be hard to overcome.”

Escanaba made the score 3-1 in the second inning when shortstop Connie Aiken knocked in a single and drove home catcher Jake LaFave, who singled two batters earlier.

Left fielder Jesus Becerra led off the third inning with a single, followed by a successful steal of second before crossing home plate thanks to a passed ball, making the score 4-1.

Escanaba pitcher Brett Schlenvogt allowed Janquart to reach base again via a walk, and the right fielder would make him pay with steals of second and third base. Another passed ball allowed Janquart to score and gave Menominee the 5-1 lead.

Escanaba first baseman Riley Lamb began the fourth inning with a base hit, and would score when the ball took a fortunate Cubs bounce off the third base bag and sailed into left field. A throwing error, another single and a walk gave Escanaba a bases-loaded situation with two outs. Monroe was able to clamp down and strike out Cubs’ left fielder Drew Rodman swinging, allowing Menominee to escape the inning with a 5-2 lead.

After trading hits in the fifth, the Cubs were able to put a man into scoring position in the sixth thanks to a throwing error and a stolen base. Monroe retired the next two batters before walking the eight hole hitter. That would be the end of Monroe’s evening.

Janquart entered the game in relief, striking out Rodman.

Janquart also whiffed the first batter of the seventh inning, but an error charged to Hanson allowed Escanaba shortstop Hunter Lancour to reach first. A single from Lamb moved Lancour to third, where he would subsequently score thanks to a passed ball, bringing the score to 5-3.

A fly out, followed by a walk to LaFave, gave Escanaba two base runners and designated hitter Austin Bourdeau a chance to win the game for the Cubs. Janquart would not allow that to happen though, executing a well-placed pitch down in the strike zone and causing Bourdeau to ground into a 6-3 double play to end the game.

“Their pitcher pitched really well,” coach Bintner said. “We just needed someone to step up and get a hit. I want to say we left ten men on base tonight and we just weren’t able to get a timely hit when we needed it.”

Menominee’s offense found itself held in check for much of the evening, mustering three hits against Escanaba’s six, something that was not lost on coach Lauzer.

“Timely hitting, situational hitting, is something we’ve been stressing all year,” he said. “At the end of the day we played a clean game. Both teams did.”

Early in the season, Lauzer knows that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“Right now, we are 8-1, but how good of an 8-1 team are we? That’s the part we’re still trying to figure out,” he said.