MARINETTE — No matter the sport or the time of year, the gloves are dropped and anything can happen whenever Marinette and Menominee square off.
Thursday’s annual Fourth of July clash between the Marinette and Menominee Legion baseball teams was no different, as Post 39 overcame several miscues to sink the Red Wave with a walkoff 5-4 win at Dale Minzlaff Field.
Marinette committed five errors in the field, two of which led to runs for the Red Wave, but Post 39 was still able to keep matters close behind some timely hitting in the sixth inning.
Down by three runs entering the bottom of the frame, JJ Brand and Kolton Goldsmith collected back-to-back base hits before a sacrifice fly from Chase MacGregor allowed Brand to score to cut Menominee’s lead in half.
Two batters later, Ethan Doubek plated Goldsmith with an RBI-groundout to first base, as Post 39 trimmed its deficit to 4-3 to start the seventh.
After holding the Red Wave scoreless in the top of the inning, Landon Corwin led off Marinette’s half of the seventh by tattooing a double to deep left field.
A single by Jason Kruse followed by a walk issued to Maverick Williamson loaded the bases for Brand, who managed to bloop a single into the gap behind second base and center field that allowed Braeden Houston, who was courtesy running for Corwin, to score and tie matters up at 4-4.
The score wasn’t deadlocked for long, as Goldsmith immediately smoked a ground ball into the outfield to bring home Kruse and hand Post 39 a one-run victory.
“All you have to do in that situation is put the ball in play, and that’s exactly what Kolton did,” Marinette coach Brian Lesandrini said. “Menominee’s infield was playing up, which shortened the field, but Kolton just went with the pitch and did a good job.”
“Hats off to Marinette for those last couple of innings,” added Menominee skipper Aaron Buck. “They did not go up to the plate with the bat on their shoulders, they went up there swinging and had some nice hits.”
Despite the final scoring going in favor of Marinette, it was Menominee who controlled the majority of Thursday’s action.
Conner Schroeder carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Weston Hanson broke up the bid with a single, one of eight base knocks tallied by Marinette.
“Obviously, you have to give a lot of credit to (Conner) Schroeder because he pitched a great game and had us hitless through the fifth, but we continued to battle and managed to put together some good team at-bats late to break the score open,” Lesandrini said.
Menominee (7-12 overall) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first after an error allowed Torin Davis to score before Doubek responded with a sac-fly to score MacGregor and make it a tie game.
Ethan Short led off the top of the second with a single before coming around to score thanks to an RBI-groundout from Davis.
The Red Wave made it a 3-1 contest in the top of the fourth after a Marinette error allowed Aiden Sevon, who reached base himself thanks to an error, to score.
Menominee’s final run came in the top of the sixth, where an RBI-single to shallow left field by Schroeder allowed Davis to score and give the Red Wave a 4-1 cushion.
Schroeder finished with five complete innings pitched and allowed just one run to go with an earned run, five walks and five strikeouts. He also hit three Marinette batters.
With Schroeder’s pitch count over 100, Menominee called upon Gable Buck to finish off the proceedings, but Marinette was able to collect five hits and three runs off Buck in just an inning-and-one-third of work.
“We were a little frustrated because we thought that the strike zone was a little low for him through the first few innings and that inflated his pitch count,” Coach Buck said of Schroeder. “We would have loved to have him go six or seven innings, but he threw so many pitches early and that came back to bite us because we just didn’t have another arm that could shut Marinette down quite as well as Conner did.”
Both teams left plenty of runs on the diamond, each stranding nine runners on base. Marinette had the bases loaded twice, once in the bottom of the second and again in the fifth, but went 0-for-2 on both occasions.
“Menominee made a lot of great plays on defense and I give them a lot of credit because they took a lot of runs off the board,” Lesandrini said.
Post 39 (3-9 overall) improves to 2-0 over Menominee on the season after Marinette throttled the Red Wave 21-5 on night two of the Firecracker tournament on June 29.
Menominee will look to avoid being swept by Marinette when the Red Wave host Post 39 on Wednesday at Spies Field.
“We lost to Marinette by a lopsided score last Saturday, but tonight we were in control for five innings and just weren’t able to control the last couple,” Coach Buck said. “All in all, we showed some good improvement and we’re looking forward to getting these guys at home on Wednesday.”
Extra innings
MANITOWOC, Wis. — Marinette wasn’t able to bask in Thursday’s triumph for long, as Post 39 had a quick turnaround with a road game at Manitowoc on Saturday.
Utilizing a big first inning, Manitowoc vanquished Marinette 12-2 in six innings, sending Post 39 to an overall record of 3-10 in the process.
Eyan Dessellier set the tone for Manitowoc with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first, part of a seven-run outburst by Post 88.
Marinette was able to get on the board in the top of the third after MacGregor led off the frame with a walk before coming home on an RBI-double by Kurth.
Kruse scored Kurth with a sac-fly to pull Post 38 within five entering the bottom of the inning.
Manitowoc tacked on another run in its half of the frame before back-to-back ribbies from Tate Hartlaub and Damian Gretz pushed Post 88 out to a 10-2 advantage in the bottom of the fifth.
Manitowoc piled up two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to cap off the 10-run mercy win.
Due up
Marinette: Post 39 is on the road Tuesday at Green Bay Southwest at 7:30 p.m.
Menominee: The Red Wave host Marquette in a doubleheader today at 4 p.m.
Marinette 5 — Menominee 4
Marinette 100 002 2 — 5
Menominee 110 101 0 — 4
WP: Doubek 7IP, 5H, 4R, 3ER, 2BB, 3HBP, 10K
LP: Buck 1 1/3IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, HBP
Leading hitters (Marinette): Goldsmith 2x4, R, 2B, RBI; Brand 1x3, R, BB, RBI; Corwin 1x2, R, BB, HBP; MacGregor 0x3, R, 2SB, SF, RBI
Leading hitters (Menominee): Schroeder 2x3, BB, RBI; Davis 0x2, 2R, SB, 2HBP, RBI; Short 1x3, R, BB; Buck 1x3, HBP
Manitowoc 12 — Marinette 2 (Saturday)
Manitowoc 701 022 x — 12
Marinette 002 000 x — 2
WP: Seth Gibeault 6IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 5BB, HBP, 9K
LP: Kruse IP, 2H, 7R, 7ER, 6BB, K
Leading hitters (Marinette): Kurth 1x2, R, 2B, BB, RBI; Logan Marvin 1x2, BB; Jackson Schramm 1x3; MacGregor 0x2, R, BB; Kruse 0x2, SF, RBI
Leading hitters (Manitowoc): Dessellier 1x4, R, HR, 3RBI; Hartlaub 1x3, 2R, 2B, BB, RBI; Gretz 2x2, R, 2BB, RBI
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