Todd Rose | Daily Press Escanaba’s Alex Irving fires off a pitch Monday night against Kingsford Tuesday night during a 9-10 Little League All-Stars District Tournament in Norway.

NORWAY — Solid play on both sides of the ball earned Kingsford a 12-2 win over Escanaba Monday night in a 9-10 Little League All-Stars District Tournament in Norway.

Kingsford coach Ed McCoy commented after the game that it was nice to have the bats backing up the pitching.

“It’s great to finally get our bats going,” McCoy said. “We’ve been struggling with our batting. Our pitching’s carried us through the whole tournament so far. It’s nice to finally have both going here. So, that was nice to wake up that bats finally.”

Handling pitching duties for Kingsford were Dawson Hood — who started and pitched for 3 1/3 innings — and Logan McCoy — who finished things up.

Coach McCoy said both did a great job toeing the rubber while the team worked together to get the gears turning on offense.

“Dawson hood pitching was phenomenal. He came in and was lighting things up,” he said. “Then Logan McCoy, he doesn’t pitch as hard, but he pitches accurate.

“Then, everyone was really hitting the ball well. The whole team was really dialed in hitting. But, the confidence gets built when your pitcher starts off as hot as he does and shuts them down the way he does.”

Hood also pushed in the first Kingsford run of the game to tie things up in the first. With Luke Rice on from a lead-off double, Hood put the ball in play to usher Rice to the dish.

The game was tied 1-1 until the top of the third when Escanaba’s Bryson Bougie scored on a sacrifice RBI from Jayce Braune. It was in the bottom of the third when Kingsford started to crack things open, scoring four runs.

Hood had another RBI while Jake Fredrickson hammered in two runs on a double. Fredrickson scored on a single by Conor Chrisman.

Promise Setner’s pop fly to centerfield in the bottom of the fifth scored Ian Hensley to put Kingsford up by ten for the win via the mercy rule.

“We hit well. They fielded a lot of good plays, and we hit enough gaps to inch away in the long run,” said coach McCoy. “So, it was really nice to put it all together for a change. It was the first time all tournament where we dialed in. We’re playing like we can, and that’s the main thing.”

Escanaba coach Jude VanDamme complimented the Kingsford team while noting that mistakes cost Esky at points.

“They’ve got a good team, obviously,” VanDamme said. “They’re a team that’s going to put the ball in play and make us make some defensive plays, and we didn’t make some.

“We made some errors. … We gave them some runs, and I think any time you’re playing a good team, you just can’t give them runs. You have to make them earn them.”

Escanaba had a total of four pitchers — Alex Irving, Nolan VanDamme, Jayce Braun and Cale LeClaire.

The Esky catcher was Brody Steinhauer who made several key stops behind the plate and even threw out a Kingsford runner stealing second.

“Brody has been nothing but getting better and better every time he’s played,” said coach VanDamme. “Every game he catches, he gets better, he’s more solid. He was a wall back there. He stopped a lot of plays. He threw a runner out. He’s a big part of our defense, and he’s a good kid.”

The first run of the game for Esky came in the first inning when Irving stole third then reached home on a throwing error.

Escanaba plays Norway today in Norway at 6:30 p.m. EST.

Coach VanDamme said the contest will be “all hands on deck” for Escanaba.

“We just have to come out and play our game one inning at a time,” he said. “It’ll be a tough challenge for us, so we’ll have to play well to win.”