Escanaba junior Nolan Bink swings at a pitch against Gladstone on May 20, 2025 at Al Ness Field in Escanaba. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

ESCANABA — Every school has its rivalry and for Escanaba and Gladstone that rivalry is separated by just seven miles. Tuesday the two teams came together for a baseball doubleheader in which both teams earned a win.

The Eskymos won the first game 6-3 and the Braves won game two 9-6 after Escanaba blew a 5-2 lead.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Eskymos coach Scott Hanson said. “And we didn’t come to play.”

Along with erasing the early deficit in game two, Gladstone senior Casey Alworden hit a milestone with his 100th career hit.

“It felt great to hit this milestone,” Alworden said. “I have been on varsity since I was a freshman. I knew it was coming soon. Just amazing to achieve it, and to have it happen here at Al Ness Field is great.”

In the bottom of the third inning Landon VanTassell and Gavin Frossard each drew a walk to put two runners on base. Davin Mattonen and Trevor Thorbahn each had a run producing hit to cut the deficit to 5-4.

In the top of the sixth inning, Alworden got the Braves started with a lead-off single. Landon VanTassell layed down a sacrifice bunt and reached on an error moving Alworden to third base. After VanTassell stole second base, senior Gavin Frossard hit a ground ball and reached on an error scoring a run to tie the game at five. VanTassell scored on a passed ball to put the Braves up 6-5.

In the bottom of the sixth Lennox Peacock doubled and Mikaiden Hughes singled to put runners on second and third with no outs. Peacock scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at six. Brody Ison struck out swinging for the first out and Ashton Rymkos flew out to right field advancing the courtesy runner Gavin Wagner to third, but Alex Ison struck out looking to end the inning.

In the top of the seventh inning Austin Pepin was hit by a pitch then stole second base. Freshman Nate Beauchamp had an RBI-double which turned out to be the winning run to put the Braves up 7-6.

“As a guy that never usually hits the ball it felt really good,” Beauchamp said. “We felt like we got our revenge on Esky. They took the first game and beat us pretty good at home, so it felt good to get one from them.”

The Braves added two insurance runs to take a 9-6 lead going to the bottom of the seventh inning.

Alworden came to the mound in the seventh inning and sent the Eskymos down one, two, three to end the game.

“Yeah we played pretty well today,” Braves coach Tyler Swanson said. “We showed a lot of grit that we haven’t at times this season and I’m proud of the way our boys fought and battled out there today.”

In the first game, Escanaba jumped out to an early lead as Bryce Bichler had a lead-off single and Nolan Bink reached on an error to score Bichler and give the Eskymos a 1-0 lead.

The Braves tied the game in the third inning on an RBI single by Davin Mattonen.

The Eskymos responded in the bottom of the third inning, as Hughes singled, scoring one and Rymkos had a two-run double to put the Eskymos up 4-1.

The Braves added one in the top of the fourth as Alworden reached on an error to score a run to cut the deficit to 4-2.

The Eskymos added a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning as Bichler scored on a wild pitch and Peacock took the 3-0 pitch over the fence for his second home run of the season

“It felt good to get that one,” Peacock said. “We may have been a little mentally unprepared coming into the game ,but we still got out of the first game with the win. Now it’s time to focus on Norway.”

Cannon Arnt earned the win for the Eskymos, allowing three runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and five walks.

The Eskymos return to action at 6 p.m. Thursday for a showdown against Norway.