Post 39 takes 6th at Firecracker Tourney

MARINETTE – Marinette’s Post 39 Legion baseball team wrapped up it’s 2024 Marinette Legion Firecracker Tournament with an 8-6 loss to Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday, Jun. 30 to claim 6th place in this year’s weekend-long event at Dale Minzlaff Field at Pedersen Ball Park. 

“We got down six or seven early on but the guys battled, came back,” said Post 39 coach Brian Lesandrini. “I feel like they’re starting to see the ball better at the plate.”

Marinette enjoyed an early lead in Sunday’s finale, going up 3-0 after one and a half played.

Kolton Goldsmith led off the top of the second with a hit and promptly moved over to second before Jeffery Brand recorded the day’s first RBI with a sacrifice fly. 

Up next, with Maverick Williamson at second base, Logan Marvin got to first by earning a walk, followed by a tremendous shot to right field for a double by Chase MacGregor, to bring Williamson and Marvin across and make it 3-0.

The bottom of the second saw Sault Ste. Marie get to Post 39 starter Jackson Schramm, erasing the early Marinette lead and then some with a five-run outburst, followed by another pair in the third and another in the fourth to make it 8-3.

Marinette made it interesting in the fifth as Weston Hanson launched one over the fence in center field to make it 8-4, followed immediately by a shot from Ethan Doubek to the same spot in center. It looked for a moment like the home crowd was going to be cheering back-to-back homers but Doubek settled for a double. 

“It’s obviously disappointing,” commented coach Lesandrini. “The Watertown game, we had the lead, this one, we battled back. So our guys are competing, which is the main thing, we’ve got a good group of guys that have good attitudes and that compete. Sooner or later, it’s going to start to break.”  

Marinette blasts Menominee

MARINETTE – Marinette’s Post 39 got to work right away against Menominee’s Post 146 on Saturday, Jun. 29, scoring five runs in the bottom of the first inning on its way to a 21-5 victory on the second day of action at the 2024 Marinette Legion Firecracker Tournament.

Chase MacGregor got things going with a nice leadoff double to center left field, quickly moving over to third on a passed ball. Up next, Weston Hanson got aboard on a walk, followed by another walk with Ethan Doubek at the plate, loading the bases with nobody out for Menominee starter Gable Buck. 

Logan Kurth did his job as Marinette’s next batter, sending a shot past the infield to score MacGregor from third before Hanson came in thanks to an off-target pitch. 

WIth the bases loaded later in the inning and one out on the board, Post 39’s Maverick Williamson brought Kurth home on an RBI-single to make it 3-0. Jeffery Brand would make it 5-0 later in the inning with a two RBI-single, prompting an early change at the mound for Post 146.  

After enduring a six-run second inning by Marinette and falling behind 11-0, the Red Wave managed to put some runs together in the top of the third frame thanks to a few solid at-bats and a couple of Marinette miscues.

Tyler Bouty led things off with a double and then later scored thanks to an error by the Marinette defense. Torin Davis and Lewis Vogeltanz each got across later in the frame on wild pitches.

An RBI-groundout by Buck scored Aiden Savon before Dylan Beal blasted a double later in the third to score a pair and trim Menominee’s lead to six runs at 11-5.

“We put a five-spot on them. Then we came back and laid an egg,” said Menominee coach John Lauzer. “They just don’t have that…I don’t want to say killer instinct but they’re so young that they just doin’t have any team leaders out there and they don’t communicate very well. Our pitching tonight, I’ve got a young staff. But there are some bright spots. We’ve got to keep going forward and making sure we’re getting better. It’s happening, but you see the mental lapses.” 

Post 39 responded to the Red Wave’s scoring outburst with one of their own in the bottom of the third, highlighted by a monstrous shot over the fence in center field from Kurth for three scores as the host team put up eight runs to put things out of reach at 19-5.

“We were due for a game like that,” said Marinette coach Brian Lesandrini after the game. “We’ve been preaching trying to hit the ball hard and get some good at-bats strung together and we finally did that today.”

Menominee loses to Watertown 

MARINETTE – Menominee’s Red Wave began the 2024 Marinette Legion Firecracker Tournament with a disappointing 15-2 loss to Watertown on Friday, Jun. 28. 

The young Post 146 squad started strong, with Torin Davis leading things off by earning a walk to first base before being brought home later in the inning thanks to an RBI single from Robert Finger, who dropped a single into shallow center to get his team on the board for the first time in the tournament.

The lead was short lived though, as Watertown plated two runs in the bottom of the first to get out front, where it would stay for the rest of the day, following a big, six-run second inning to put the Red Wave on its heels.

Fielding miscues from Menominee allowed Watertown to build a 10-1 lead going into the fourth frame, when the Red Wave managed to get back onto the scoreboard after Davis singled with Hunter Brief on second. The throw to first not only failed to get Davis, it sailed past the first baseman and allowed Brief to come home, giving Menominee its last run of the game.

Red Wave blanked by Esky

Menominee– Post 146 squared off with Escanaba on Wednesday, Jun. 26 and had trouble getting its offense going in a 3-0 defeat.

Both teams struggled with the bats in this one, with Post 146 recording just two hits in the contest while Escanaba made the most of its three hits and was able to put some runs on the board, one in the fifth and two in the sixth.

Menominee’s Chase Monette connected for a single in the third inning and Gable Buck recorded a single in the fourth, accounting for the Red Wave’s offense for the contest. 

The two teams will square off again this weekend at the 2024 Marinette Legion Firecracker Tournament.