Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Hunter Lancour throws a pitch against Negaunee June 21 at Escanaba.

IRON MOUNTAIN — The Escanaba Junior Cubs Under-17 baseball team captured a U.P. championship with an 11-1 mercy rule victory over Iron Mountain in five innings here Saturday.

Both Escanaba and Iron Mountain entered the title game 4-0 for the weekend.

The Cubs jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first two innings through a combination of walks and singles to drive those runs in.

The two pitchers — Esky’s Hunter Lancour and Iron Mountain’s Blake Julian — faced off as Julian had trouble finding the strike zone and 10 walks piled up.

Iron Mountain’s only run came in the second inning when Lucas Maxson singled to push Chase Carlson across home plate.

Lancour pitched a complete game to earn the win, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out five.

Esky’s Matt Zimmerman, Chase Cloutier, Bryce Blixt and Nick DeGrand all finished with RBIs. Adam Willette also had two hits and a walk.

The Cubs’ path to the finals consisted with four more mercies as they beat Marquette (22-2), Bark River (20-7) and Menominee (19-5) in pool play to advance to the semifinals where they faced off against a familiar foe.

However, the Cubs weren’t fazed and knocked off Gladstone 13-3 in five innings to advance to the championship round.