Blues defeat Blue Storm

Courtesy of the Marquette Blues

The Marquette Blues hosted the Ishpeming Blue Storm in Legion baseball on Tuesday night. The Blues came away with a 10-1 league victory in the seven inning contest.

“We knew we were going to be in for a tough game tonight, and Ishpeming kept it interesting until the 5th when we were able to take advantage of some aggressive base running and forced them to make some errors,” said Derek Swajanen Blues manager.

Ishpeming started the scoring in the top half of the first when Gunnar Meyer reached on error and was advanced to third on a hit by Jacob Finnegan.  Finnegan tried to steal second and the Blues cut the ball short and tried to get Meyer at home but the throw was off the mark and he scored.

Marquette was able to plate two runs in the bottom half of the inning and then were able to tack on 5 insurance runs in the 5th to close the door.  Ryan Walther singled, then stole second and then scored on Ryan Hanson’s base hit.

Hanson stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Hanson was able to score on a fly ball foul out by McKinley Larson for the second run and that was all that McKinley Larson would need for the win.  Larson went the distance for the Blues and delivered another real good outing, only giving up 4 hits, 2 walks while striking out 11.

“When Mac has his stuff working, he is a real good pitcher and gives us a chance to win any game,” acknowledged Swajanen.

Leading the way for the Blues hitting were Ryan Walther, who went 3-4, and Ryan Hanson who added 2 hits and McKinley Larson, Trevor Bratonia and Levi Underwood each added one apiece.

“We did a lot of things right tonight and I am happy with the direction and the effort these boys are putting forth. Things are starting to come together.  We travel to Wisconsin this weekend for four more tough games so we’ll see how we match up against some teams from bigger areas.  It will be a real test for us.”