Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Tony Derkos lines up a shot against Marquette during the American Legion baseball Zone 5 Championship in Escanaba Saturday.

ESCANABA — It has often been said good things come to those who wait.

Marquette Blue was rewarded for its patience here Saturday while retaining its Class A American Legion Zone 5 baseball title in a 12-7 triumph over the Escanaba Cub.

The Blues (13-6) will try to defend their state title at downstate Trenton this weekend.

“The boys practiced patience all weekend, which comes from their senior leadership,” said Blues’ manager Mark Pantti. “We’re deep with experience. Many of these guys have been around for five years. I think we’re primed and ready for back-to-back runs.”

Esky qualified for the state tournament for the first time in six years by upending pre-tourney favorite Copper County 14-7 in Saturday’s semifinal contest at Al Ness Field.

“We can only be happy with the way this turned out,” said Cubs manager Jon Bintner. “Copper Country is a tough team to beat. We’re definitely excited to be going to the state tournament. It comes down to when we make the plays, we win. If we play a solid defensive game, we can hang with people. One thing that gets us in trouble is walking and hitting batters. We did a good job battling back. We fought right to the end.”

Marquette eliminated Gladstone 10-3 in the other semifinal at Don Olsen Field.

The Blues finished with just five hits but created scoring chances by taking advantage of seven walks and five errors against the Cubs.

Esky drew within 8-6 by scoring three times in the fourth inning.

Marquette answered with four runs in its half of the inning when the Cubs made two of their miscues.

“They’re a good team,” said Pantti. “Our goal was to get ahead of them and stay ahead.”

Esky scored its last run on a single to right-centerfield by Jack McEvers in the seventh.

Eli Gardner got the Cubs on the board first by scoring on a wild pitch. McEvers then gave them an early two-run cushion on Chase Cloutier’s ground out to second base.

Kyle Frusti brought the Blues within 2-1 on a balk in the opening frame. Pete VandenAvond tied the score on an error, and Dakota Maki’s two-run double to left gave them a 4-2 lead.

Marquette extended its lead to 8-2 in the second before Cloutier scored Esky’s third run on a wild pitch in the third.

Trent Turchin trimmed Esky’s deficit to 8-4 on Nick Chiu’s ground out to second in the fourth. A sacrifice fly to right by McEvers made it 8-5. Bon LaChance then got the Cubs within a pair on a passed ball.

The Cubs collected 11 hits, including a pair by Matt Kavin.

Cloutier, who pitched 3 2/3 innings, absorbed the loss. He struck out three and walked seven. Cooper Curtis allowed two hits in relief.

“Chase took a ball off a finger as a catcher,” said Bintner. “He gave it everything he had, and Cooper did a nice job in relief.”

Keith Juidici struck out two, walked two and allowed four runs on seven hits through three innings. VandenAvond fanned four, walked none and allowed three runs on four hits in four frames.

“Our pitching was phenomenal today,” said Pantti. “Keith threw a great game, and Peter did a nice job finishing it off.”

LaChance and Chiu combined for seven strikeouts against Copper Country and allowed nine hits and seven walks, and hit three batters.

The Cubs got 13 hits off Nick Horning, Cam Cischke and Henry Switzer.

Esky led 7-0 after two. The Flames (17-2), however, cut their deficit to 7-4 in the fourth.

The Cubs added seven runs in the fifth, including two on a single by Turchin.

Horning, who battled injuries since the high school season, lasted just 2/3 inning and gave up four runs in defeat.

At Gladstone, Marquette scored six runs on no hits in the fourth inning, surging to a 9-3 advantage, and Juidici ended the scoring on a solo home run to right in the seventh.

“In a lot of games we had blow-up innings during the season,” said Indians’ manager Scott Kwarciany. “We had cleaned that up, for the most part, then we had one of those innings, which we couldn’t recover from.”

The Indians committed four errors, and gave up four walks in the fourth, then stranded seven baserunners in the final three frames.

“Marquette did what they had to do,” said Kwarciany. “Our guys played hard. Low numbers hurt us at times this season, but they represented the Gladstone Legion real well. They’ll grow from this and move on.”

Gladstone took a 2-1 lead in the second by scoring twice on Casey Alworden’s suicide squeeze bunt.

Marquette answered with two runs in its half of the second before the Indians tied the contest on Noah Peterson’s sacrifice fly to right in their half of the fourth.

Parker Maki, who finished one out short of a complete game, whiffed six and walked two.

John Soderman worked three frames and absorbed the loss. He stuck out one, walked five and surrendered six runs on three hits. Creten fanned two, walked two and allowed three runs on one hit in three innings of relief, and Cooper Sanville gave up the home run in the seventh.

“The Maki kid pitched a nice game, and Cooper has a nice arm for just coming out of eighth grade,” said Kwarciany.

In Friday’s games, Travis Mack’s walk-off bunt lifted Gladstone past Menominee 7-6.

Nick Martin, who opened the seventh with a bunt single, scored the game-winner.

“Nick’s bunt was definitely big momentum for us,” said Mack. “I knew I had to get the ball down and past the runner coming in. We knew we had to win this one to keep going. Otherwise, the season was over.”

The Indians fell to Copper Country 5-0, and Esky rallied past Ishpeming 8-7 in Friday’s early games.