Gladstone Indians pitcher Tyler Darmogray delivers a pitch against Norway on June 23, 2024 at Don Olsen Field in Gladstone. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

ESCANABA — Plover brought home the big prize from the Gregg Johnson/Al Erickson Memorial American Legion baseball tournament, defeating Norway 6-0 in the title game here Sunday.

Although the Central Wisconsin visitors got only five hits, they capitalized on eight walks and two errors while improving to 6-7 this season.

“Our pitchers pounded the strike zone and played good defense,” Plover manager Wayne Sankey said. “We made the plays when we needed to. We were struggling early in the year. Hopefully, this gets us back on the right track.”

Plover got to the championship game by eliminating defending champ Sheboygan, Wis. 10-2. Norway hung on to defeat Gladstone 4-3 in the other semifinal.

The Black Sox, taking advantage of three walks and a fielding error, scored the last two runs in the fifth.

“It came down to errors,” Norway manager Tracy Haferkorn said. “Eight walks and two errors, that was it right there. We had plenty of opportunities, but ran ourselves out of 2-3 innings. Although, Plover has a good ball club. Their pitching is good. You can’t give up six runs to a team of their caliber and expect to win.”

After loading the bases on three consecutive walks in the first, the Black Sox opened the scoring on Adam Neskowick’s single to leftfield and gained a two-run cushion on Tim Sackmann’s sacrifice fly to center.

Willie Washington extended Plover’s lead to 3-0 on a fielder’s choice in the second and Joe Schiszek made it 4-0 on Most Valuable Hitter Kason Saeger’s double to left.

Walker Livernash, the tourney’s Most Valuable Pitcher, scattered four hits, struck out five and walked two and Saeger finished with two doubles.

At Gladstone, the Vikings scored their first run on Landon Amundson’s double to left and Cole Baij added a three run shot to left in the third.

The Indians (4-1) answered with three runs in the fourth.

Isaac Ketchum scored on a wild pitch. Cooper Curtis brought the Indians within two runs on a fielder’s choice and John Soderman’s single to left provided Gladstone with its third run.

“I’m glad the kids battled back, although I wasn’t really happy with the strike zone,” Indians’ manager Joe Darmogray said. “It frustrated the pitchers. They had to throw the ball right down the middle to get a strike, but it is what it is. Both have good teams. I would have rather seen these teams in the finals. I think we’ll have good games against each other. We didn’t hit the ball as well as we wanted, but that’s baseball.”

Tyler Darmogray and Ketcham had two hits each for Gladstone, which finished with six.

Norway collected nine hits, including three by Baij. Amundson, Bryce Adams and Nike Burgoon added two apiece.

Darmogray, who pitched five innings, took the loss. He gave up four runs on seven hits, fanned six and walked two.

Winning pitcher Carson McLean went the distance and whiffed seven and walked one.

“We expended a lot of energy at Gladstone,” Haferkorn said. “We didn’t have much left in the tank. We have seven players coming off a long high school season and three of them played in the (Upper Peninsula) all-star football game. I think the rain date (Saturday) may have helped the other teams, but I don’t think it helped us. We were sitting pretty for pitching. We had four aces left.”

Prior to Saturday’s games getting washed out, the Escanaba Cubs rallied past Plover 9-7 in Friday’s rainy finale for its first win this season.

Esky (1-3), which trailed 6-4 after four frames, vaulted to a 9-6 lead on Bon LaChance’s grand slam homer to left in the fifth inning of a contest stopped after six due to the tourney’s time limit.

“He (Lucas Haemmerle) threw a lot of fastballs and was throwing strikes,” LaChance said. “It looked like they were saving pitchers and it kind of motivated us. We were playing with a chip on our shoulder. That’s our Cubs’ team. We’re all gritty.”

The Black Sox took a 6-1 lead on Haemmerle’s single to center in the fourth.

Esky shaved its deficit to 6-2 on LaChance’s two-out double to left and got within two runs on a double to center by Ashton Rymko in the fourth.

“Getting three runs with two out was huge,” LaChance said. “We capitalized when we had baserunners. Our defense was better tonight. With the rain, we knew we had to lock in.”

The Cubs collected nine hits, led by Rymkos with three. LaChance and Eli Gardner chipped in with two apiece.

Cannon Arnt, who worked two innings in relief of Adrian Mercier, took the win. He struck out two and allowed a run and three hits. Mercier gave up six runs on seven hits, fanned four and walked two.

“Adrian battled to give up four innings and Cannon shutting the door was good to see,” Cubs’ manager Jon Bintner said. “Nick (Chiu) kind of bailed us out on a couple plays in centerfield. Obviously, Bon’s bomb was huge. Clutch two-out hits were the difference tonight, although we still left a lot of runners on base. When you win by the time limit, it kind of scars it. That’s not exactly the way you want the game to end. Sometimes it’s hard to be the home team. Although, it’s still a win.”

Neskowick led Plover with three hits and Haemmerle had two.

“We kind of fell through the other night,” Sankey said. “Although, we have to give credit to Escanaba. They played a good ball game.”

Norway rallied past Copper Country in the previous contest 7-4.

Copper Country led 4-3 in the fifth prior to Varda’s go-ahead, two-run single to left-center in the fifth.

Norway scored three times in the first before Luke Mikkola’s bases-clearing double gave Copper Country a 4-3 lead in the second.

Plover opened with a 4-0 triumph over Marinette.

The game was scoreless until the fourth when Darren Grabski’s ripped a two-run single, then added an RBI single to right in the fifth.

In Friday’s opener, Niagara, Wis. scored four times in the bottom of the sixth to upend Marinette 4-3.

In Friday’s evening, the Indians picked up a 8-0 win over Niagara. Austin Pepin got the start on the mound for the Braves and allowed zero runs on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk. “It felt really good,” Pepin said. “We played well with only one error on the day and I knew I had a good defense behind me and we got it done.”

The Vikings had their way with the Eastern UP Wood Ducks Carson McLean got the win for the Vikings allowing one run on one hit with two strikeouts and no walks throwing only 30 pitches in three innings of work. “It felt great out there,” McLean said. Most of my outs were one and two pitch strikes and I just kept attacking the strike zone and made them put it in play and let my defense work behind me.”

Cole Baij had two hits for the Vikings that resulted in three RBIs and Landon Amundson had a two-run single for the Vikings in the contest as Norway took the 13-2 victory.

Gladstone travels to Norway Tuesday and Esky visits Menominee Wednesday.

Both teams will play in the Marinette Firecracker tournament this weekend.

Daily Press sports reporter Adam Hinch contributed to this article.