Escanaba falls to Marquette
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ESCANABA -- The Marquette Blues got the better of the Escanaba Cubs Wednesday night at Al Ness Field as they beat the home team 6-1 in Escanaba.
On the mound for Marquette the entire game was Justin Wenk who finished with seven strikeouts with two walks and four allowed hits for one earned run.
Wenk wasn't just solid on the mound, he backed it up offensively going 2-3 at the dish with a hit by pitch.
On base, he had two steals as well. Three if you count him making it safe into second on a tipped ball that was called dead.
His official second steal came a couple of pitches later.
"Wenk, you know what you're going to get on the mound," said Blues manager Derek Swajanen. "He's a good, solid, consistent pitcher. … He's been a consistent baseball player for us all year."
After two scoreless innings, the Blues drew first blood when Hogan Nemetz scored on a throwing error.
In the fourth, Marquette busted it open with a five-run inning anchored by a two-RBI double by Jakob Peterson and RBIs from Nemetz on a walk and Brady Wright on a sacrifice fly.
"It was a tough loss (Tuesday against Gladstone), so I was happy to see the boys regroup," Swajanen said. "They did a nice, solid, job and played good defense."
Even with seven total hits, there were still missed opportunities for Marquette, said Swajanen.
"We had just enough hits," he said. "We still stranded 11 runners which we want to try to avoid but we got enough of them home."
Adam Willette opened the game on the mound for Escanaba before he was replaced by Carson Sprader in the fourth.
Willette had one strikeout with seven walks and three hits allowed for two earned runs.
Sprader had six strikeouts -- which included all three outs in the seventh -- with two walks. He gave up four hits for four earned runs.
"We had one bad inning, really," said Cubs manager Jon Bintner. "We had our chances. I think the score was 1-0 and we had guys on second and third and we hit a ground ball to the pitcher and struck out. So, we talked about that in our little huddle. Especially with our three and four hitters, guys that you expect to wait.
"We have the pressure on them and that was the best we could come up with? That wasn't a very productive inning for us and that changes things a little bit."
The Cubs' only run came courtesy of Drew Rodman who came home when Nick LaFave hit a ground ball.
LaFave was called out due to runner interference as Jarret Olsen collided with Blues' second baseman Peter VandenAvond.
Escanaba totaled four hits in the contest with Hector Araguayan, Grant LaMarche, Olson and Rodman all notching singles.
Despite the loss, Bintner is looking forward to taking away lessons from the game.
"Definitely some positives," he said. "We just gotta shore up some of the mistakes -- a couple throwing errors and baserunning blunders -- and we're a team to be reckoned with."
Before both teams take part in the Marinette Firecracker Tournament, the Blues host Negaunee in a doubleheader today.
For the Firecracker, Escanaba will play Marinette on Friday at 8:30 p.m. EST while Marquette kicks things off against Green Bay.