GLADSTONE — They struggled for a while, then they responded.
That pretty much sums up what happened here Thursday night as the Gladstone Indians surged to a 14-5 American Legion baseball victory over the Menominee Red Wave in the zone tournament.
Menominee tied Thursday’s nightcap at five on a double to left by Connor Schroeder in the second inning.
The Indians regained the lead on Cooper Curtis’s two-run single to left in the third, then made it 8-5 on Tyler Darmogray’s infield single.
Gladstone (10-8) added a run on Cooper Sanville’s sacrifice fly to left in the fourth, then scored three times in the fifth and twice in the sixth.
Trevor Thorbahn ripped a two-run single to right in the fifth and Casey Alworden and Aedan Creten added RBI singles to right and left, respectively, in the sixth.
The first eight Indians’ hitters reached base in the contest, giving them an early 5-0 lead.
Menominee, fueled by Dylan Beal’s two-run single to right, answered with four runs in its half of the first.
“It was kind of an ugly win, but we’ll take it,” Indians’ manager Joe Darmogray said. “It’s still a win. We gave up all those runs in the first inning. We’ve got to clean that up and hit the ball better. We really didn’t hit the ball very good, although that will come.”
The Indians, however, collected 13 hits against the Red Wave after getting just three in an 8-3 triumph over Ironwood in their opener.
In the nightcap, Creten led the Indians with three hits. Tyler Darmogray, Alworden and Curtis added two apiece.
Gladstone used three pitchers, including John Soderman who struck out five, walked one and allowed just one hit in the final three frames.
Isaac Ketchum, who worked two innings in relief of Austin Pepin, fanned five, walked two and gave up two hits.
“We’ve got enough pitchers,” manager Darmogray said. “We kept all our pitchers under 45 tonight. Winning two games takes little bit of the pressure off. Hopefully, the kids keep coming to play. They’re having fun, which is the main thing.”
Menominee finished with seven hits, including a pair by Schroeder, but committed three errors. The Indians had one miscue.
“We were happy to be tied 5-5, but wanted to play and error-free game and just didn’t do that,” Menominee manager Aaron Buck said. “We can’t afford to let teams have big innings this late in the season. We used five pitchers, but four of them are age 15 and under. We have a young team. This is a learning experience for many of our kids.”
Sanville had two hits and Thorbahn and Gavin Frossard drove in two runs each against Ironwood.
Isaiah Brow, who pitched 6.2 innings, took the win. He struck out four, walked two and allowed three runs on six hits.
“Isaiah pitched awesome,” manager Darmogray said. “We were smart at the plate. We were seeing the ball real well and Gavin had a nice suicide bunt which gave us the lead. The guys played smart baseball.”
In other games, Norway beat Menominee 11-1 and Ironwood 7-3.
Menominee’s lone run against Norway came in the first inning after Torin Davis scored on an RBI from Robert Finger.
Cyle Kenny collected a single in the fourth inning.
Ironwood defeated the Red Wave 8-1 on Friday, giving Menominee an 0-3 record in tournament play.
Kenny provided the Red Wave with their only run against Ironwood after plating Aiden Sevon with an RBI-single in the first inning.
Sevon went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, while Gable Buck collected two hits, including a double, in three trips to the dish.
The Red Wave finish the season at 7-17 overall.
Additional reporting by Matt Lehmann of the EagleHerald.
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