Escanaba senior Katey Lamb rounds third base after hitting a home run during a game against Millington on May 10, 2025 at Abrahamson Field in Escanaba. (“The Big Dog” Mitch Vosburg/Daily Press)

ESCANABA — There was no quid pro quo. There was no lotion being fed down in a bucket to the bottom of a well. But there was Escanaba senior Katey Lamb doing damage from the right side of the batter’s box on Saturday.

Lamb finished a combined 6-for-7 with three home runs and seven RBIs as the Eskymos cruised a 2025 Candy Swetkis SISU Strikefest tournament at Lemerand Park.

“She’s an All-State player, and she’s starting to do All-State things,” Eskymos skipper said of Lamb, who earned First Team All-State honors in 2024. “This is the time of the year we wanted her to really start amping things up, and she really is. She’s one of the leaders on this team, and she’s showing that at every game.”

The Eskymos faced an all familiar foe in the tournament’s title game in Freeland. The Eskymos and Falcons collided in the regional semifinal round in 2024, an 8-4 Esky victory with all eight runs coming via home runs.

But for the majority of the title game in 2025 Esky relied on everything but the long ball.

A sacrifice fly from senior Carly Bowden, who had a home run robbed at the fence later in the game, scored Chloe Dubord on a sacrifice fly and Engebretson earned an RBI single for a 2-0 lead after one. A bases-loaded walk from Engebretson, an RBI single from Harlee Coolman, an RBI double from Maddy Mott and a two-run double from Clara Braun pushed Esky’s lead to 8-0 after three innings.

Lamb’s third home run of the day came on a 1-1 count in the bottom of the fourth for a 9-0 lead. The Eskymos called game in the bottom of the fifth inning when Dubord drew a walk with the bases loaded, invoking the 10-run mercy rule for a seemingly anti-climatic way for a 10-0 win.

Lamb finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored in the championship game. Engebretson and Braun each had multi-hit games.

Senior Grayson LaMarche finished 2-for-3 with a double from the dish. In the circle, well, there’s a reason why the University of Michigan acquired her services for the future. She allowed one hit and walked one with 11 strikeouts across five innings of work.

But that wasn’t even her best outing of the day. That happened in the Eskymos’ final pool play game against Millington, the No. 6 team in Division 3.

LaMarche proved to be too much for the Cardinals, striking out 15 of 18 batters she faced across six perfect innings in a 10-0 rout.

And of course, it was none other than Lamb herself who broke the scoring wide open in the bottom of the first. And of course, it was via the long ball, this time it was the two-run variety. The Eskymos tacked on a third run off a Millington miscue for a 3-0 stranglehold after one inning.

Despite falling into an early hole the Cardinals did their best to keep the Eskymos off the scoreboard. After distributing back-to-back walks to start the second Morgan Matusik got Dubord to hit into a double play and got Lamb to groundout to shortstop Lilly Damm to end the second.

Bowden led off the third with a single, but Matusik got Engebretson to ground into a double play and got Coolman out via groundout to end the third. And despite surrendering a one-out double to Addison Noblet Matusik got Braun to flyout and LaMarche to groundout to hold the line at 3-0.

The Eskymos finally scratched across another run off an RBI groundout in the fifth from Engebretson before scoring six runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 10-0 mercy win.

Lamb finished 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs scored. Dubord went 3-for-4 and scored twice. Bowden finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double. Engebretson also earned two hits while earning a double, two RBIs and scored once. Noblet earned a pair of doubles.

The Eskymos also defeated their JV team 10-6 in the tournament opener. No official stats were kept, but Lamb had one at-bat in the game. She cranked an opposite-field home run which smacked the windshield of an innocent Chevrolet pick-up truck past the fence in right field. The truck moved to a different location after the game.

Now the Eskymos prep for nine road games this week. There’s matchups with Walled Lake Central, Milan and Grand Blanc downstate on Saturday. There’s a doubleheader against Negaunee on Thursday and a highly anticipated showdown, to the surprise of literally no one, against Gladstone starting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

But it all starts with a doubleheader at Marquette starting at 4:30 p.m. Monday.

“When they want something, they’re going to get it,” Fields said of the Eskymos. “They’re a resilient group. They’re very goal oriented, and they wanted (to win) this tournament (on Saturday). They went out and got it.

“They’re doing everything they set out to do.”

“The Big Dog” Mitch Vosburg is a multi-time award-winning sports writer and photographer who proudly serves as sports editor for The Daily Press (Escanaba). He can be reached at mvosburg@dailypress.net. Follow him on Instagram (@themantheycallmitch) and on X (@realmitchvburg).