Todd Rose | Daily Press The Gladstone Little League Softball Majors poses with medals and its banner after toppling Escanaba Friday during the District 10 tournament in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Entering Friday evening, the Gladstone All-Stars had one goal in mind, beat Escanaba twice and win the district championship. They did just that as they defeated Escanaba 6-4 in the opening game and 16-6 in the championship game to win the district championship in Escanaba.

“I told the girls after we beat Norway that sometimes it’s better at the end when you have to take the hard way there. It makes the victory all the more sweet,” said Gladstone coach Tasi Martinez. “And these girls came through and delivered that victory today. They delivered two of them.”

Though the Gladstone girls were able to pull away and force an early end via the mercy rule in the championship game, the opener saw a closer battle between the two teams.

Escanaba drew first blood as Mara Anderson batted in Avery Fisher and Claire Jacobsen to make it 2-0 in the top of the third.

Anderson reached first, stretched things to second and third but was called out on her way home in an attempt to score an extra run for the Esky girls.

Gladstone fired back in the bottom side of the inning as they scored five runs. The first two came from base on balls when a pitch hit Ava Goodman, and Malia Quigley walked on ball four.

The go-ahead runs scored on a heads-up play by Gladstone. After Escanaba catcher Avery Fisher made a nice grab on a foul ball hit by Lauren Pare to get the second out of the inning. With the ball now live, coach Tasi Martinez sent both Emma Trombley and Ava Goodman home to score two runs and take the lead 4-2. Quigley scored on a passed ball moments later to make it 5-2.

Escanaba scored two more runs in the game and Gladstone one to make it a 6-4 final.

The title-winning hit came from Reese Buckley in the championship game as she hit a two-run RBI double to enact the mercy rule.

From losing to Escanaba 10-5 Wednesday to beating them twice on Friday for the championship, coach Martinez believes a change in attitude helped the team.

“I think that what really changed was the dynamic in our dugout,” she said. “As a first-time girl coaching all-stars, I came in kind of tense, and I think that how I came in impacted the girls. Today, I came in, and I was like, ‘Listen, this game isn’t a job. As soon as it becomes a job, quit. Let’s go out there, have some fun today and see what we can do. Let’s take it one pitch, one inning, one game at a time.'”

Lauren Pare and Tiahana Reynolds split time pitching for Gladstone, while Sophie Hill and Emma Parlato took time throwing for Escanaba.

The Escanaba coach shared his thoughts on where the difference in the games came from and also wished Gladstone well as they get set to compete downstate.

“The breaks didn’t go our way. We had some balls that dropped in that shouldn’t have, and the breaks went Gladstone’s way and, obviously, they’re moving on tonight,” Noblet said. “Good for them. I hope they represent the U.P. well.”

In the time the team was able to spend together, not only did they improve, but they had fun doing it, said Noblet.

“With this group of girls, from where they started to where we are now, it’s leaps and bounds,” he said. “This team is learning how to win. They’re a young group. At 12U you wouldn’t say inexperienced, but there are some girls that are kind of fresh to the game still, and they’ve certainly stepped up and made us a good team.”

Gladstone will now head to the state tournament in Grosse Pointe where they will take the field at least three times as they play Edwardsburg Saturday at 12:15, Jackson Southwest Sunday at 10 a.m., and Bay County Monday at 12:15 p.m.