Escanaba junior Lennox Peacock walks off the mound after ecording an inning-ending strikeout during a MHSAA Division 2 district championship game on May 30, 2025 at Al Ness Field in Escanaba. (“The Big Dog” Mitch Vosburg/Daily Press)

ESCANABA — Coming up with a timely run-producing base hit was a challenge for Escanaba baseball on multiple occasions throughout the 2025 season.

That challenge reared its ugly head at the worst possible time as the Eskymos fell 7-1 to Kingsford in Friday’s district championship game. Esky’s season ends with a final record of 22-12.

“It’s frustrating,” Esky skipper Scott Hanson said. “We’ve struggled all year to come up with that key hit. That kind of came back to haunt us again.”

Friday’s finale treated spectators to a highly anticipated pitching duel between Escanaba junior Lennox Peacock and Kingsford senior Gavin Trevillian. Both had their moments of brilliance, and both had their rocky moments.

The Eskymos loaded the bases with one out in the first, but Trevillian found ways to make juniors Ashton Rymkos and Owen Fields look at strike three. Despite leaving the bases loaded the Eskymos did force Trevillian to fire 27 pitches.

Junior Brian Boutilier found himself on third base with two outs in the second, but freshman Bryce Bichler swung and missed at strike three. However, Trevillian’s pitch count climbed to 50 pitches after two frames. And with high school pitchers in the state of Michigan capped at throwing 15 pitches the Eskymos were well on their way to forcing Trevillian out of the game earlier than Kingsford wanted to.

But Trevillian dropped back to earth in the third frame. The only hit he allowed after the second inning was an RBI double to junior Ashton Rymkos. And by the time Trevillian was forced to exit the game due to the number of pitches he threw there were two outs in the seventh inning.

In total, the Eskymos stranded four runners in the first two innings, unable to come up with the big hit with their season on the line. Trevillian took the win, allowing one unearned run off two hits with five walks and 10 strikeouts across 6 2/3 innings of work.

“Trevillian scared me at the beginning of the game,” Flivvers coach Joe Kriegl said. “He was struggling. Every batter was going full count. He battled through it. He’s been in the moment. I’m so proud of him.”

Peacock pitched as advertised. His fastball was flirting with 90 mph, but his success was for not when the Eskymos couldn’t produce a run during his five innings of work.

The Flivvers drew first blood off an RBI single from Andres Finley in the fifth. Joey Weber hit a 1-2 pitch into shallow center field to take a 2-0 lead and force Peacock out of the game.

Peacock was ultimately charged with three earned runs off five hits, three walks and 12 strikeouts.

“I feel bad for (Lennox),” Hanson said. “He pitched really well. Hopefully all you need (when he pitches) is (to score) one or two runs, and we couldn’t do that.”

With Rymkos assuming duties on the mound Finley came up with a two-run two-out single to extend the lead to 4-0. Kingsford added three runs in the top of the seventh off an RBI double from Weber, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly from senior Gavin Grondin, who recorded the final out on the mound for Kingsford, who toppled Sault Ste. Marie 9-1 for its first ever win in district play en route to the program’s first district championship.

“It’s really special,” Kriegl said. “And to beat Escanaba, who’s just a phenomenal program… I mean, they’re going to be phenomenal next year. They’re losing nobody.”

The Eskymos struggled to come up with timely hits in their semifinal matchup against Houghton. In the end it was junior Nolan Bink who found a gap between shortstop and third base with the Gremlins infield playing on the infield grass to defend a bunt and have a fighting chance at making a potential play at the plate for a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning. Esky mustered four hits and four walks off Jackson VonDoloski.

Junior Cannon Arnt earned the win for Esky, fighting out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning to toss a two-hit shutout which featured two walks and 12 strikeouts.

“That’s probably Cannon’s best start of his career,” Hanson said. “I thought he was fantastic.

In the end, the Eskymos mustered two runs, six hits, 17 strikeouts and left 11 runners in scoring position.

“I’m going to take that. That’s on me,” Hanson said. “We need to have a better approach. We need to do something different, because it came back to bite us all year long.”