Adam Hinch Daily Press
Escanaba’s Nick Chiu delivers a pitch in Thursday’s game against Menominee.
ESCANABA — The Menominee Maroons brought their young team to Escanaba to play the Eskymos on Thursday evening with the Eskymos winning 13-3.
The Maroons are a young team with nine freshman on the team and only three seniors. Every young team goes through its share of growing pains but you work hard to improve everyday.
It started to show tonight for the Maroons as they took an early 1-0 lead on a RBI single by Drew Olson. The Maroons added another run in the second inning on the first of two RBI singles for Landon Bardowski. “I think this game will give us motivation going forward this season and we will continue to improve,” Bardowski said.
The Eskymos would respond in the bottom of the second after digging themselves in a 2-0 deficit. Nolan Bink would come through with a single that scored a run, Bink then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at two. ” We had to hit the ball we were behind and needed to make plays,” Bink said. Escanaba would add on another run to take the lead 3-2 after two innings.
Menominee would tie the game in the top of the third inning, after singles by Kaiden Calcari and Kyle Kenny, Bardowski hit his second RBI single of the contest.
Eskymos junior Bon LaChance hit a single that brought Trent Lawson home to again give Escanaba lead at 4-3. “I knew we would come through that how this team is we all work hard,” LaChance said. LaChance And Matt Kaven would also score in the inning to give Escanaba a three run lead after four innings.
Escanaba continued to pour it on in the fifth inning. Chase Clouiter hit a nice double down the line. “It felt good to finally get good contact on it,” Cloutier said. Eli Gardner and Trent Lawson both hit RBI singles on back to back hits.
Matt Kaven, Kaiden Brown and Ben Johnson all hit singles and Escanaba took a 12-3 lead. Nolan Bink laid down a bunt to bring in a run and end the contest.
Nick Chiu was the winning pitcher throwing a complete game allowing three runs on five hits and five strikeouts. “I felt really good out there the arm hasn’t been hurting I cant ask for anymore than how i feel today,” Chiu said.
“We are a young team. It’s about the little things, blocking the ball making good throws, Escanaba has a good program they are a good team,” said Menominee coach John Jasenovsky. We were out hitting them to start the game, we will learn from this and continue to improve as the season goes on,” Jasenovsky said.
The Eskymos will face the Gladstone Braves at noon on Saturday in Gladstone.
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