Justin St. Ours | Daily Press The Gladstone American Legion baseball team poses with the Zone Five trophy after winning the championship game against Marquette Sunday at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — The Gladstone American Legion baseball team took an early lead and hung on against the Marquette Blues 9-3 here Sunday to clinch the Zone Five championship and continue its quest for a state championship three-peat.

“Obviously, it’s exciting, and it’s great for all the kids to experience it,” Indians’ manager Justin Jurek said. “These younger kids that got brought up, not only were they able to contribute, but they got to it experience it as well. I think everyone’s excited. We’re in familiar territory, so I think everyone’s ready, but excited too.”

The Indians kicked off the top of the first inning with a single and a walk. Jared Crow then doubled on a fly ball to left field to score Carson Shea for their first run of the game. Ian Schwalbach scored Blake Krouth on a sacrifice bunt for Gladstone’s second run. Next up was Cody Frappier, who smashed one over the left field fence for a two-run homer and a 4-0 Gladstone lead.

“We came out with a lot of energy right off the bat, which we haven’t seen a lot of this season,” Jurek said. “So, it was good to see that in the postseason we’ll have energy and be ready to go. Getting off to a 4-0 lead, that helps the defense and helps the pitcher relax. It kind of puts the pressure on them and not us.”

In the top of the third, a hit batter and a walk put two on base for the Indians. Caden Alworden singled on a hard ground ball along the third base line to score Cody Frappier and increase their lead to 5-0.

The Blues loaded the bases in the bottom of the third on the back of two walks and a single by Peter VandenAvond. A sacrifice fly by Blake Henriksen scored Brendan Kaski for their first run of the game.

Gladstone added three more in the top of the fourth. Crow singled on a fly ball to center to score Krouth, Schwalbach’s ground single scored Dan Martin, and Ben Kelly drove Frappier in to extend the Indians’ lead to 8-1.

“You can’t afford to give up four and three runs like that,” Blues’ manager Derek Swajanen said. “You take those innings out of it, we dropped two pop-ups, one ball hit the lip and one ball hit the bag. That’s the difference. Baseball’s a game of luck. It’s the difference of three or four pitches. We didn’t execute those couple of defensive plays, and we can’t afford to do that.”

The Blues scored in the bottom of the fourth on a bases loaded walk to VandenAvond, and Gladstone notched another run in the top of the seventh.

“On the other standpoint, I think we defended their bunts and their special teams, if you would, rather well,” Swajanen said. “I feel really good about how the boys played. Three or four bad plays, but we kept battling. We kept getting runners on and we didn’t give up.”

Schwalbach earned the win for Gladstone over 5 2/3 innings, striking out six and allowing five hits, seven walks and three runs. Shea pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief, allowing just one walk. Frappier finished with two hits, two RBIs and three runs, and Crow notched two hits, two RBIs and one run. Schwalbach collected one hit and two RBIs, and Alworden had two hits and one RBI.

Hogan Nemetz took the loss for the Blues over five innings, striking out three while allowing four walks, 10 hits and eight runs (seven earned). Cooper Myers pitched an inning in relief, allowing two walks while striking out two, and Jacob Soucy took the final inning, allowing three hits and one run. VandenAvond finished with a hit and an RBI, and Henriksen collected an RBI. Jon Jason, Kyle Frusti, Nemetz and Soucy all finished with one hit

“It’s nice for Marquette to be back to the state tournament,” Swajanen said. “I was really happy with the work the guys have put in. They put a lot of work in, and I think this is our first loss since July 6th. We’ve been playing really good ball.”

In Saturday’s semifinals, Gladstone beat Copper Country 9-4 and Marquette shut out Menominee 7-0. The third place game between Copper Country and Menominee was awarded to Copper Country after a Menominee forfeit.

The championship game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was moved to Sunday because of rain.

“(The tournament) was well put on,” Jurek said. “We had a lot of great volunteers that really helped us out.”

Gladstone, Marquette and Copper Country all advance to the Class A state tournament in Gladwin beginning Thursday.