Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Gladstone’s Ean Terrian slides safely into second base against Menominee’s Keagan Monroe Wednesday at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — It was almost as if a storm had rolled back in as the Gladstone American Legion baseball team let its bats thunder to overcome the Menominee Red Wave 9-4 here Wednesday.

Gladstone’s Cooper Cavadeas smashed a solo homer in the first inning to get things rolling.

Menominee then tied the score in the second when Keagan Monroe snuck home after the Indians mistakenly began vacating the field after two outs.

With the score tied at 1 entering the third inning, Gladstone’s Dan Martin singled on a fly ball, and Jared Crow drew a walk to put two on base. Ian Schwalbach broke the tie with a three-run homer to give the Indians a 4-1 lead.

Gladstone added one more in the bottom of the fourth on a line drive single from Carson Shea that scored Ean Terrian.

“It was nice to see our bats come alive more than our normal offense,” Indians’ manager Justin Jurek said. “We started seeing some extra base hits, so that was good to see.”

Menominee’s Buddy Beyer cut the deficit to 5-2 in the top of the fifth with a line drive single that scored Ethan Russell.

The Indians (9-6) extended their lead in the bottom of the fifth, starting with a ground rule double from Schwalbach that scored Martin. After Parker Frappier loaded the bases with a ground single, Terrian drew a walk to score Crow. Schwalbach then scored on a passed ball, and Frappier scored on a sacrifice from Caden Alworden to increase the lead to 9-2.

Menominee (11-6) tacked on two in the top of the seventh on a passed ball and a single from Monroe that scored Alex Hanson.

“We’re not hitting the ball very well,” Red Wave manager John Lauzer said. “We’re not hitting the ball hard enough. Our hitting’s not there. We’re going to have to work on our technique.”

Jurek was happy with how the Indians performed defensively.

“Defensively, we were solid pretty much the whole game,” he said. “We made all the standard and routine plays, and we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Frappier earned the win over six innings, striking out two and allowing nine hits, two walks and two runs. Cavadeas pitched one inning in relief, allowing three hits, two walks and two runs. Schwalbach led the offense with three hits, four RBIs and two runs. Shea finished with two hits and an RBI, and Cavadeas collected one hit and an RBI.

Beyer took the loss for Menominee over four innings, allowing seven hits, one walk and five runs (four earned) while striking out two. Dante Sartorelli pitched two innings in relief, striking out two and allowing five hits, three walks and four runs. Monroe finished with three hits and an RBI, and Beyer notched one hit and an RBI.

“For his first time throwing this year, I think Buddy came in really well for those four innings. He kept us in the game for those four innings,” Lauzer said.

“Overall, I’m very happy with the way they played. Jason Janquart, at the top of the order, stood out. He really hit some hard balls tonight. We’ve been working on our defense, and our defense played pretty well.”

Gladstone travels to Escanaba tonight at 7 p.m., while Menominee hosts Marinette tonight.