Todd Rose | Daily Press Gladstone’s Ryan Polley celebrates as he crosses home plate against Dickinson County Thursday in Gladstone during the opening day of the American Legion Zone Tournament.

GLADSTONE — Momentum shifted back and forth between the North Dickinson Greens and Gladstone Indians but ultimately ended in favor of the Greens in the bottom of the seventh as they won 6-5 Thursday night in Gladstone on opening day of the American Legion Zone Tournament.

With a runner — Blake Julian — on base, Ian Anderson, the startin pitcher, stepped into the batter’s box and wallopped the ball over the centerfield fence for a two-run walk-off home run to win the game.

“Our team always struggles a little bit with the first round of hitting for some reason,” said North Dickinson manager Paul Julian. “I knew they’d come back and start to hit. But, the way the momentum kept switching, it was a high tension game.”

Tensions reached a boiling point in the bottom of the fifth when a meeting with both managers was called behind home plate by the home plate umpire.

Both managers said afterward the meeting helped cool things off between the two teams.

“We had a little talk after the high fives,” said Paul Julien. “(Kwarciany) said, ‘high tensions,’ and I said, ‘It’s ok. Every time we step on this field or you step on ours or we go to someone else’s, we’re different out on the field.’ We want the passion for our kids and at the end of the day, we’re all friends still.

“Danny (home plate umpire) did a good job pulling us in and reminding us that we’re friends.”

Indians manager Scott Kwarciany had similar feelings.

“I think there’s always tension between these two teams. There was tension from high school season and it bleeds over to here,” Kwarciany said. “Both teams wanted it, and both teams did everything to win tonight. For us, it was just a matter of wanting to get a win on our home field.”

Gladstone drew first blood in the match-up with Nick Martin hitting a double down the left-field line to drive in Mason LaChance.

Runs in the fourth — off a sacrifice fly RBI from Owen Trombley — and fifth — Ryan Polley scoring off a Dayton Berson hit to right field — put the Indians up 3-0.

In the outfield, Trombley also made several snags on flyballs from the Greens to record several outs.

With the bases loaded in the sixth for the Greens, the momentum switched with the crack of Blake Julien’s bat as he drove in three runs on a double to the centerfield fence to tie the game. He was ushered home moments by Hunter McCarthy later to make it 4-3.

Again, the pendulum swung in Gladstone’s direction in the seventh as Polley put down a sacrifice bunt to bring in two runs and take the lead 5-4.

Paul Julian gave Polley and the Indians kudos for the play.

“The way Gladstone executed that suicide (bunt) was flawless,” he said. “At that point, I thought, ‘(I’m) a little scared right now.’

“But then the older boys in our dugout always seem to bring everyone up. That’s done, let’s move forward. And you see what happened. Holy cow.”

On the Indians’ side of things, Kwarciany was happy with how the team played.

“I thought, first of all and foremost, that we played better than we’ve played in a long time,” he said. “We needed this. This is good momentum for our team.”

After stuttering through the season, Kwarciany said the team was starting to all get on the same page.

“We struggled most of the season, but we regrouped here at the end,” he said. “We had some good practices heading into this week, so there’s nothing to be disappointed about with the way we played. … If we play like this, like the way we played tonight, I think we’ll do just fine.”

Evan Haferkorn finished on the mound for the Greens, and Caden Alworden went the distance for the Braves.

Next up, Gladstone plays the Eastern U.P. Wood Ducks today at 4:00 p.m., and Dickinson County plays Menominee at 1:00 p.m. EST Saturday. Both games are in Gladstone.