Marinette Legion douses Red Wave at Firecracker tourney

MARINETTE — The Battle of the Bay Cities took center stage on the second night of the annual Firecracker Legion baseball tournament, as Marinette tussled with the Menominee Red Wave on Saturday.

Fueled by a strong pitching performance from Jake Farley and backed by an offense that racked up more than twice as many hits as the Red Wave, Marinette cruised to a 10-0 victory over Menominee at Dale Minzlaff Field at Pedersen Ball Park.

Farley spun five innings of five hit ball while issuing just one walk against four strikeouts, out-dueling his Menominee counterpart in Garrett Carlson, who allowed seven hits, seven runs (all earned) and three free passes in one-and-two-thirds innings of work.

Offensively, Post 39 smacked 11 base hits, with Chase MacGregor, Teagan Anderson and Justin Kruse all enjoying multi-hit evenings.

“Tonight, I thought we hit the ball extremely well. We broke things open early and never looked back,” Marinette coach Brian Lesandrini said. “Jake pitched a nice game, threw strikes, and that’s the name of the game HItting-wise, it’s much easier to pitch when you have a lead like that.”

Post 39 seized control in the bottom of the second inning, scoring seven runs on six hits.

Hunter Goldsmith broke the scoreless tie with an RBI-single before MacGregor, Kruse and Anderson all swatted doubles to plate four more runs for Post 39.

Anderson managed to touch home plate thanks to a sacrifice-fly by Ethan Doubek, while Colton Arpke was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, which allowed Caleb Klimek to score as Marinette jumped ahead 7-0.

Marinette finished off the Red Wave with a three-run fifth inning, as an RBI-single from Kruse coupled with sac-fly from Klimek and a fielder’s choice by Maveric Williamson-DeWitt gave Post 39 the 10 runs necessary to end matters early.

Kolton Goldsmith was Menominee’s top hitter, going two-for-two at the dish. Blake Paasch, Braden Huston and Robert Finger all collected base knocks, while Weston Hanson reached base after getting plunked by a pitch.

“Marinette has very good pitching but they can hit the ball. My first pitcher, Garett, was kind of sad, but I told him, ‘Hey, that’s a very good team over there’,” Menominee skipper John Lauzer said. “I’m not making excuses, but these were our first games in 20 days. We haven’t played since June 7, so my pitchers have not gotten really in work in.”

A full recap of all three days of the Firecracker tournament will run in Wednesday’s edition of the EagleHerald.

Marinette 10, Menominee 0 (5 innings)

Marinette 070 03x x — 10

Menominee 000 00x x — 0

WP: Farley 5IP, 5H, BB, 4K

LP: Carlson 1 2/3IP, 7H, 7R, 7ER, 3BB

Leading hitters (Marinette): MacGregor 2x4, 2R, 2B, 2RBI; Kruse 2x4, 2R, 2B, 2RBI; Anderson 2x2, R, 2B, 2BB, RBI; Doubek 1x1, R, BB, SF, RBI

Leading hitters (Menominee): Goldsmith 2x2, Paasch 1x3, Huston 1x2; Finger 1x1