The Superior Central baseball team traveled to Escanaba on Monday, May 20. The Cougars fell behind early, and were unable to regroup, falling 8-1.

“We had conference games scheduled the next day so pitch counts were in effect,” head coach Greg Mannisto said. “Escanaba is a good hitting team, you need to throw strikes and let your defense work for you. Jason Kanerva did just that, he pitched very well finishing out the last four innings.”

Kanerva was effective in relief, throwing four scoreless frames. Escanaba scored all eight of their runs in the second inning, before Kanerva entered the game, and the damage was unfortunately done for the Cougars. “It was an inning we just couldn’t find an out,” Mannisto said. “Six walks and four hits between three pitchers spelled our doom by the end of the second.”

A highlight for the offense included Logan Frusti getting on base three times and coming around to score their lone run.

S-C was also scheduled to play two games at Bark River-Harris on Tuesday, May 21. Those games were unable to be completed due to weather conditions.

The Cougars play in a Division 3 district in Gladstone today (Friday). Gladstone, Menominee, Manistique and Newberry are all in the district as well, with the winner moving on to a regional semi-final game in Gladstone.

“The team has had a really rough season this year, we didn’t expect to lose this many games, we had a lot of bad breaks throughout the season,” Mannisto said. “The team has a lot of senior leadership and they know what they need to do going forward, they are excited to get going in the districts and confidence and expectations are high.”