Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Tyler Lawson (9) slides into home ahead of Marquette pitcher Peter VandenAvond (left) to score Friday at Escanaba.

ESCANABA — The Escanaba Eskymos baseball squad picked up their second win in a row to start the season Friday afternoon with a 12-0 victory against the Marquette Redmen in Escanaba.

The game ended via the mercy rule in the middle of the fifth inning.

“Well, two in a row and first home game, so, that was exciting,” said Eskymos coach Scott Hanson. “We had a great crowd here, so I was excited to see that.

“I didn’t think we were going to get much of a weather day, and when it’s all said and done, it turned out really nice.”

Aside from the occasional stiff breeze, it was a nice, sunny, day along the shores of Little Bay de Noc.

Escanaba pitcher Colin Arnt earned the shutout victory on the mound. Arnt allowed only two hits — singles from Erik Johnson and Jacob Krauss — and one walk. He had six strikeouts.

“The kids are playing really good baseball,” Hanson said. “I thought Colin Arnt pitched a gem. Super, super job. He threw a lot of strikes and got ahead in the count. I think he had 59 total pitches over the five innings. That’s as good as it can be.”

Hanson added Arnt’s performance was backed up by solid defensive play, especially from the middle infielders.

The Eskymos scored consistently through the first four innings (2, 3, 3, 4) to gain the advantage.

Tyler Lawson stole home on a passed ball to put the first point on the board. Hunter Lancour would follow Lawson’s example a few pitches later to make it 2-0.

In the second, Lancour ripped the ball deep. For a moment, it looked like it might clear the fence but landed just short for a double. The hit brought in three runs for the Eskymos to make it 5-0.

“I don’t know if (the ball) hit the base of the fence or bounced and hit the fence, but I thought it was gone,” said Hanson. “I didn’t see it hit (the fence), and I was waiting for him to be going all the way around.”

Lancour (3 RBIs, 1 run) and Lawson (1 RBI, 2 runs) each had two hits. Trent Lawson had 2 RBIs off of a single. Arnt also notched a hit and a run in addition to his solid pitching performance.

“We’re excited to be playing,” Hanson said. “We know we got a nice team, and Marquette’s a young team. We knew that coming in. We just made plays right and jumped on them early.”

In spite of the outcome of the game, Derek Swajanen, Marquette head coach, was happy with how his team played.

“Well, it’s the first game of the year, and I have four or maybe five kids that haven’t played in a couple years,” Swajanen said. “We tried to win each inning, and I was real happy with that.”

Swajanen added there were some missed defensive opportunities by the Redmen.

“I think 10, maybe 11, of their runs came with two outs where we missed a couple double-play balls,” he said. “They’re super young, and I explained to them that any time you have a chance to get out of that with two outs without them scoring any runs, you have to take advantage of that. We didn’t, and they capitalized.

“But, I was real happy and encouraged. Everybody learned something about the game. I had one player that learned that 10 runs after four and a half innings the game is over! So, that’s how new some of them are.”

Escanaba visits Iron Mountain today, and Marquette travels to Kingsford Monday.