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Calumet gets swept by Gogebic to start season

BESSEMER — Despite a steady rain and temperatures dipping into the 40s at Massie Field on Tuesday, the Gogebic baseball faithful were filled with excitement and anticipation as the Miners swept a doubleheader and Gogebic pitcher Erik Hakamaki was nearly perfect, tossing a terrific no-hitter at the Calumet Copper Kings in the first game of a doubleheader.

“I didn’t expect to throw a no-hitter,” Hakamaki said. “I just came out to play a game like I always do. My stuff was pretty normal — I just try to go out there and throw. Almost all my pitches were fastballs with only a couple of curves thrown in. By the bottom of the third inning, I knew I had a no-hitter going. It’s a baseball tradition that the guys in the dugout don’t say anything to a pitcher throwing the no-hitter, but I heard some little chirps from the guys. Our defense was tremendous today, they were awesome. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

And Hakamaki came within inches of tossing a perfect game. With two outs in the fifth inning, Hakamaki had mowed down 14 straight Copper Kings and was cruising. Then Dan Tarnawski drove a pitch into the left center field gap. It looked like Calumet’s first hit, but center-fielder Jacob Suzik and left-fielder Cade Mazzon are both fast aggressive players and they took off after the ball. They closed in on the ball from opposite directions and when Suzik saw Mazzon coming hard he looked away from the ball for a micro-second and the ball bounced off his glove. 

It was a tremendous effort on the part of both players and had the play been made, it would have preserved a perfect game. When the play was ruled an error, the perfect game was gone, but Hakamaki still had his no-hitter. It was baseball drama at its finest.

“The no-hitter was awesome,” Gogebic coach Leo Ribich said. “And we were one out away from a perfect game. Eric was a good pitcher for us last year and we’re counting on him to be our No. 1 pitcher this year. We returning a lot of players and we got to the regionals last year and hopefully we can go forward from there. We should have outstanding pitching and an excellent defense. Our hitting has not reached its potential yet, but it will come.”

In second inning, the Miners strung together hits by Hakamaki, Suzik and Peyton Solberg along with a walk to Anthony Metas, and Tyler Busch reached on an error and Bailey Ribich had a sacrifice. Gogebic went up 3-0 after two innings. 

The Miners scored three more runs in the fourth inning when Ribich walked and stole second, Hakamaki, Tyler Morrison and Brett Heil singled and Gogebic gained a 6-0 advantage.

Mazzon led off the fifth inning with a soft liner over the first baseman’s head, Busch singled to left-center, Joey Rocco’s ground out plated Mazzon and Ribich knocked in Busch with a base-knock.

Hakamaki also led Gogebic’s hitting attack by going 2-3.

In the second game, Gogebic pitcher Anthony Metas pitched a strong game and Hakamaki returned to the game to hold off a final Copper King charge in the last inning.

The Miners improved their record to 2-0 in the Copper Mountain Conference and 4-0 overall on the season. They host Hancock Friday.

Calumet scored a run off Gogebic pitcher Anthony Metas in the first inning, but the Miners countered with two runs of their own as Ribich was once again the igniter and scored Gogebic’s first run after a walk, a steal and an error by Calumet’s third baseman. Morrison was safe on the error and attempted to steal second and a bad throw by the catcher sent him to third. Morrison was caught in a rundown between third and home but somehow escaped and scored and the Miners led 2-1.

Metas shut down the Copper Kings for the next three innings and would wind up getting the win. 

Gogebic’s Peyton Solberg started off the fourth inning with a double and Ribich followed with a two-bagger that knocked in Solberg and increased the lead to 3-1.

The Miners led 5-2 after five innings, but in the six inning Calumet’s first four batters walked and had a hit-batsman as the Miners’ lead shrunk to 5-3. Ribich brought back Hakamaki to close out the game with bases loaded, but Calumet’s Brent Loukus lifted a liner to left and the lead narrowed at 5-4 with one out. Hakamaki once again came up big by retiring the last two Copper Kings and the win was preserved.

“With the shortened season, every game is important,” Ribich said. “This was a good experience for our team to go through.”  

Suzik led Gogebic’s hitting attack with a 2-3 performance.

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