Adam Hinch Daily Press Escanaba’s Bon LaChance hits a grand slam home run against Marinette on Saturday at the Firecracker Tornament at Pederson Park in Marinette.

MARINETTE — A rainy day on Friday gave way to a beautiful weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the annual Firecracker Tournament in Marinette.

The Escanaba Cubs and Gladstone Indians both competed in the weekend tournament with Escanaba going 3-1 beating Marinette 15-4, Menominee 7-0, and Watertown 6-1, before falling 7-4 to Green Bay Southwest in the championship game.

The Gladstone Indians dropped three of their four games falling 6-2 to Green Bay Southwest, 2-0 to the Soo Black Sox, 13-2 to Manitowoc before rebounding to defeat Menominee 14-4 in the seventh place game on Sunday.

The Cubs struck first in the championship game as Chase Cloutier got a lead off single to start the inning Eli Gardner and Adrian Mercier each reached on an error to load the bases and Bon LaChance hit a hard grounder to short reaching on an error and scoring two. Ashton Rymkos grounded into a double play but got an RBI as the runner scored from third and the Cubs led 3-0. “We battled and like we talked about yesterday it the first time as long as I can remember where we played a meaningful game on Sunday with a chance to win,” Cubs coach Jon Bintner said.

The game remained at that score until the bottom of the third when Aaron Heyroth scored for Green Bay on a ground ball by Donatello Badalamenti to cut the Cubs lead to 3-1.

The Cubs let Green Bay back in the game in the bottom of the fourth as they scored three runs in the inning, two of them off errors by the Cubs to take a 4-3 lead.

The Cubs tied the game in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI single by Adrian Mercier. “We didn’t give up,” Bintner said. “We kept playing our kids gave it all they had just had some mistakes and didn’t come up with some timely hits.”

Green Bay added three runs in the bottom of the sixth to secure the win.

The first game of the tournament was between Gladstone and Green Bay Southwest. Badalamenti had a pair of hits for Green Bay and pitcher Zach LeMieux went six and two-thirds innings allowing two runs on three hits with seven strikeouts and five walks.

The Cubs took on Marinette to closeout day one of the Firecracker Tournament. Marinette took the lead early at 2-0 after two innings.

The Cubs responded in the top of the third with the bases loaded, LaChance got an RBI and reached on an error to cut the deficit to 2-1. Rymkos drew a walk that tied the game at one and Bryce Blixt hit an RBI single to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead. The Cubs added three more runs in the inning and led 6-2 after three.

As the rain continued to intensify in the top of the fifth inning LaChance took a hard rip at a pitch and the bat flew out of his hands and to the fence nearly hitting Rymkos who was on deck at the time. The umpires delayed the game for a short time then postponed the remainder of the game to Saturday morning.

The game resumed Saturday morning with the Cubs posting five runs in the fifth inning on six walks, one hit and one hit batter.

Menominee added two in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Cubs lead to 11-4. The Cubs answered back as LaChance came up with the bases loaded and smashed a shot over the fence for a grand slam to give Esky the win. “It felt good,” LaChance said. “He started fastball inside wasn’t sure if it was a strike. He was mixing it with a curveball and I knew he was coming back with the curveball and I was on time and got a nice hit on it.”

Gladstone put on their best performance in the seventh place game on Sunday as they took on Menominee.

Menominee got on the board first as Aiden Beal scored on a double by Tyler Bouty. The Indians responded in the bottom of the second as Aedan Creten singled and Trevor Thorbahn came through with a two-run homer the first of his career to give the Indians a 2-1 lead. “It felt amazing,” Thorbahn said. “I never thought iI could do it until I did it”

Menominee tied the game in the top of third as Robert Finger scored on an error. In the bottom of the third the Indians awnsered again as Cretan smashed a shot that landed in the infield of the adjacent ballpark for the home run to tie the game at two. “It felt great,” Creten said. “We have been in a little slump as a team and this will give the team a good boost in confidence going forward.” The Indians added three mor runs in the inning and led 6-2 after three.

With the Indians leading 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth John Soderman joined the party with a two-run home run to extend the Indians lead to 8-2. “I was in a big slump,” Soderman said. “But a home run is the best way to get out of a slump.”

Menominee added two in the top of the sixth but the Indians ran of five runs in the bottom of the sixth for the win. “We didn’t hit the ball very well this weekend,” Indians coach Joe Darmogray said. “But this last game we got the bat on the ball and got back to playing Gladstone baseball.”