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Games #33 & 34
ESCANABA BIG RAPIDS
5 0
ESCANABA PINCONNING
4 5 |
REGIONAL TITLE SLIPS AWAY
LeMire Fires Gem, But Mistakes Cost Eskymos
Eskymo senior Doug Beattie walks off the field and senior Tony Peacock is consoled by Assistant Coach Steve Towns after Escanaba lost in the regional championship game to Pinconning Saturday in West Branch. (Sandi Young photo)
WEST BRANCH---The game of baseball is a lot like the game of life: everything can change in a split second. And for the Escanaba Eskymos, that is the reality that they'll live with this summer as a regional championship slipped away in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday.
The Eskymos were one out away from a monumental upset of the top-ranked Pinconning Spartans, but an untimely error followed by a lack of execution of baseball fundamentals turned the tide.
Pinconning escaped with a 5-4 win in nine innings to win the regional championship and earn a spot in Tuesday's quarterfinal at Central Michigan University. A great season that saw the Eskymos set several school records was abruptly over. But Eskymo Manager Don Lauscher was not dwelling on the negative.
"When they play as a team, anything can happen, and a lot of good things happened this year," Lauscher said. "I'm so proud of the kids and how hard they worked. What a great year. All the credit goes to the coaching staff, and of course, to the players.
"The team played very, very well today and we just came out on the short end," the coach continued. "But sometimes the score doesn't always tell you exactly what happened in the game."
The powerhouse Spartans will play the Mt. Pleasant Oilers for a trip to the Final Four at 1 p.m. Tuesday. But everyone who was in attendance at Ogemaw Heights High School Saturday knows that it should've been the Eskymos heading back to CMU.
Escanaba was facing a Pinconning team with a 36-2 record, #1 ranked all season long, a team that routinely mercied even good opponents throughout the Lower Peninsula. But Eskymo senior Jordan LeMire pitched the game of his life, and the Eskymos chased the Spartans' ace pitcher and were in position to shock the baseball world.
Escanaba carried a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. With runners at first and third and two out, LeMire got Pinconning's Lucas Foco to hit a grounder to senior third baseman Brett Jenshak. Not an easy play, but Jenshak backed up and fielded it cleanly. But he threw to second instead of first, and it was a high throw, allowing the tying run to score.
So close, but there's that "split-second" that is a part of baseball. LeMire was able to get the third out of the inning, and we went to extra innings tied at 4-4.
It looked good at the start of the inning as Tony Peacock singled and Ryan Way was safe when he bunted and the throw to first was poor. With runners at first and second and no outs, Troy Rodman was asked to bunt the runners into scoring position. Unfortunately, he bunted back to the pitcher, and the Spartans got the lead man at third base.
Sure enough, LeMire hit a fly ball to right field that would have likely scored Peacock with the go-ahead run. Instead, Peacock was still at second and could not advance. Then Jenshak popped up to the pitcher to end the threat.
LeMire retired the Spartans 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, but Spartan reliever Casey Pashak returned the favor against the Eskymos in the top of the ninth. Then, as Pinconning batted in the bottom of the ninth, another mistake. LeMire struck out lead-off batter Brett Saha to start the inning, but his pitch was wild and Saha reached base.
And sure enough, great teams make you pay for mistakes like that. Andrew Shoemaker put down a bunt to move Saha along, his third sacrafice of the game. Then Pashak hit one down the left field line to score the winning run, sending Pinconning to the quarterfinals and leaving the Eskymos with the pain of "what might have been".
"We said from Day One in practice that, more times than not, it comes down to whether we can execute the bunt," Lauscher said. "Today, they got the bunts down. We didn't. And they won because of it. It had nothing to do with a couple errors here and there. If we get the bunts down, we win."
Top photo: Eskymo freshman Alex DeHaan slides home safely. Pinconning catcher Coty Swinson is there, but the ball isn't. Bottom photo: Eskymo senior Jordan LaMire throws a pitch in the regional championship game against Pinconning Saturday in West Branch. LeMire pitched the best game of his career, but the Eskymos lost in extra innings. (Sandi Young photos)
For LeMire, it is a stinging loss. Not only because he had the game won but for a defensive error, but because he pitched the best game of his career when his team needed it the most. LeMire threw 140 pitches, more than half of them curveballs, as he kept the powerful Pinconning line-up off-balance for most of the afternoon.
"I told Jordan that I've been around baseball a long, long time, and this may have been one of the best games that I've ever seen an individual pitch," Lauscher said. "His heart was huge today."
Lauscher also gave credit to his sophomore catcher, Ian Serrer, who did not allow a passed ball, blocking every pitch in the dirt.
"Gator just caught a whale of a game today and kept us in it," Lauscher said. "He has come so far this year."
Pinconning scored a run in the first inning on an RBI single by Pashak. But Escanaba scored twice off Foco, Pinconning's ace, in the second inning. Jenshak's RBI single tied the game, and Austin Young's sacrafice fly made it 2-1.
Escanaba added a run in the third inning when Travis Villeneuve and Doug Beattie both singled and Peacock's sacrafice fly scored Villeneuve. Ryan Way followed with a double, but Beattie was thrown out at the plate trying to score all the way from first.
That was huge because Pinconning scored two runs in the third inning on two hits, an error, and a walk. But Peacock untied things with a solo home run to left-center field in the fifth inning.
It stayed 4-3 Eskymos until the unfortunate events of the bottom of the seventh and ninth innings.
"This was a tough one," Lauscher said. "For the seniors, especially. To play the No. 1 team in the state and to be right there at the end....we should have had it, but a couple things didn't go our way. The kids fought hard and we played well, and that's all I can ask, really."
LeMire pitched 8 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (two earned) on six hits. He struck out seven and walked four. Pinconning's ace, Foco, worked five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits. Pashak got the win, giving up no runs on two hits in four innings of work.
Escanaba (29-5) outhit Pinconning, 9-6. Peacock and Way were the only two Eskymos with more than one hit.
SEMIFINAL: ESCANABA 5, BIG RAPIDS 0
In the morning game, the Eskymos advanced to the finals with a 5-0 win over Big Rapids. Doug Beattie pitched a complete-game two-hitter, striking out eight batters along the way. Beattie was also 4-for-4 at the plate with two singles and two doubles. Troy Rodman had a double and single, and Ryan Way added a two-run homer.
(You can hear replays of Way's homer, a great catch by right fielder Jared Dagenais, and Peacock's homer from the championship game, by clicking the "ESKYMOS SECOND AT REGIONALS" button on the left side of this page).
Jordan DeFever pitched a complete-game and took the loss for Big Rapids (17-14). He allowed five runs on ten hits.
Top photo: Eskymo senior Ryan Way gets a high-five from Manager Don Lauscher after hitting a home run in Saturday's regional semifinal win over Big Rapids in West Branch. Bottom Photo: Eskymo junior Travis Villeneuve steals his school-record 39th base in Saturday's title game against Pinconning. (Sandi Young photos)
JUST THEIR LUCK: The Escanaba Eskymos, still stinging from their disappointing loss to Pinconning, were on their charter bus when an awful noise came from beneath them. The bus blew a tire. A big one. And it was on the Cut River Bridge detour in the eastern U.P. The bus driver stopped at the end of the detour to assess damage, then again in the town of Naubinway. He made a run for it, at very slow speeds, and got the team home at about 12:50 a.m. And in a fitting way to end the season, as they pulled into Al Ness Field, it was raining.
ESKYMO NOTES: Eskymo senior Doug Beattie ended up the school's all-time career hits leader with 110. Senior Ryan Way moved into the second spot on that list with 97 hits. Steve Berg is now third on the list with 96 hits from 2003-2006....The Eskymo-Pinconning game was the 100th game for manager Don Lauscher. Even though it was a loss, Lauscher still holds an 82-18 record (82% winning percentage) during his three years in charge....The '09 Eskymo team set a school record for wins in a season with 29....Junior Travis Villeneuve set school records for stolen bases (39) and runs scored (48) in a season.
OTHER U.P. ACTION: The Norway Knights won a regional championship in baseball Saturday, beating Gaylord St. Mary, 11-4, and Harbor Light Christian, 3-1....The Negaunee Miners lost their regional semifinal game to Lincoln-Alcona, 3-0....In softball, the Gladstone Braves won a regional title, beating Oscoda, 1-0, and Kalkaska, 4-1....and the Rapid River Rockets won a regional title, beating Gaylord St. Mary, 3-2, and Harbor Lt. Christian, 4-2.
Eskymo junior Troy Rodman catches a fly ball off the bat of Pinconning's Casey Pashak during Saturday's regional championship game. (Sandi Young photo).
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