Escanaba sophomore Joey Garcia delivers a pitch against Negaunee on April 24, 2025 at Al Ness Field in Escanaba. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

ESCANABA — The bats were working for Escanaba baseball as it split a pair of games against Negaunee winning game one 6-1 and dropping game two 13-10 on Thursday. The Eskymos tailed 16 runs on 14 hits over the two games.

“We hit the ball really well tonight,” Eskymos’ coach Scott Hanson said. “Our offensive output has been very good and we have been aggressive on the bases which got us a couple extra runs, but it also cost us a couple. I want the kids to have the aggressive mindset on the bases.”

In the first game, Negaunee got on the board first in the top of the second inning as Eskymos pitcher Cannon Arnt walked four of the first five batters to bring in the first run.

The Eskymos tied it up in the bottom of the second stanza. Lennox Peacock got a lead-off single and later scored on a RBI single by Owen Fields.

The Eskymos added to the lead in the third inning. With two men on base, sophomore Brody Ison hit a two-run single and later scored on a wild pitch to put the Eskymos up 4-1 after three innings.

In the top of the fourth inning, Arnt struck out the first two batters and Evan Dellangelo grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning.

“I went into the game with the mindset to throw strikes,” Arnt said. “I worked on my curveball because my fastball wasn’t really on today.”

In the bottom of the fourth with a runner on second base, Ashton Rymkos hit an RBI single to extend the Eskymos lead to 5-1.

“I was just trying to put the barrel on the ball and find some gaps,” Rymkos said. “I was looking to get some big hits and get some runs on the board.”

Arnt picked up the win, throwing a complete game and allowing one run on three hits with seven strikeouts and five walks.

In game two, the Miners again got on the board first as they scored four runs on two hits. Owen Cardinal and Devin Jurmu each had hits to start the inning and two walks and a hit batter by pitcher Brody Ison led to Hanson going to the bullpen in the first inning.

Walks and throwing errors by the Miners allowed the Eskymos to put up two runs in the bottom of the first inning to cut the deficit to 4-2.

The Miners led 5-2 going into the bottom of the third inning, when the Eskymos flipped the momentum scoring seven runs in the inning highlighted by a two-run single by Bryce Bichler who advanced on a throwing error and was thrown out at the plate trying to extend the lead.

The Miners added three runs in the top of the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 9-8.

In the bottom of the fourth frame Lennox Peacock scored on a RBI double by Ison to extend the lead to 10-8.

Joey Garcia had a productive outing despite giving up five runs on four hits with two strikeouts and five walks.

“Joey did a good job for us on the mound,” Hanson said. “He’s young and his pitch count got up there and he had an injury that we hope is nothing big but that’s baseball.”

The Miners put the game away scoring four runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Killean Ryan picked up the win for the Miners allowing one run on one hit with five strikeouts and three walks in three innings of work.