Jamie Glenn/Daily Mining Gazette Superior Service’s Cale Ollanketo slides into third base during Portage Lake Little League Majors action against Tervo Agency Tuesday in South Range.

SOUTH RANGE — The rain held off for Superior Service (3-6) and Tervo Agency’s Portage Lake Little League Majors matchup on Tuesday in South Range. Infield outs late in the game allowed Tervo, who improved to 5-3 on the season, to sneak away with an 8-6 win.

“Eli Heathman did a great job pithing for us along with Logan Niemi,” said Tervo manager Anders Hill. “They really set us up for a lot of success. A couple real highlights were Hayden Guilbault, our catcher, threw out four guys trying to steal on him. Getting those kind of outs are really big outs for us (as that) gets us out of innings.

“Cale Ollanketo made a diving play at second base early on in the game that really kind of speared us on to get some outs when we had the bases loaded and no outs. Those were defensive plays (that) really carried us tonight, which was really good.”

Tervo struck first as Guilbault reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the first. Niemi walked. Both later scored. Tervo continued to threaten, but could not string any hits together.

In the top of the second, Nick Aho and Rylan Issacson both singled to open the inning. Both players later scored, evening the game for a short time.

Looking to regain the lead, Tervo did that when Ollanketo singled and later scored on a sacrifice by Guilbault.

Needing to answer, Superior did just that in the top of the third as Caleb Issacson singled and later come home on a sacrifice, tying the game at 3-3.

In the bottom of the third, Kade Jenkins walked before Ian Hong doubled. Both later scored to put Tervo back up, 5-3.

Jude Smith got Superior Service going again in the fourth by reaching on an error. Cameron Anderson then reached on an error two batters later. Both scored on a double by Issacson, evening things again.

The bottom of the fourth was where Tervo put the game out of reach. Cale DeVoge reached on an error. Two batters later, Eli Heathman doubled. Jenkins followed with a single of his own two batters later. Hong then tripled to push the score to 8-5 in favor of Tervo.

Levi Bach walked and later scored to cut the lead down to two runs, but that was as close as Superior Service could manage.

“I’m very proud of the kids, they played very hard,” said Mike Bach, manager of Superior Service. “We had some good at bats. I’d say the one thing we need to work on is our baserunning. We had a few too many outs (and) we gave it to them on the base paths.

“Other than that we put ourselves in the position to win. We had the potential tying run at the plate, but they made a good play (with) Kalvin Kytta who made a nice catch for the other team. We couldn’t quite get that last run across the plate.”

Both teams will play again next Tuesday night.

“We play Sayen’s Auto on Thursday,” said coach Bach. “We’ve been really stressing to swing at the first pitch and just to really be aggressive at the plate, and we’ll just try and minimize our mistakes baserunning.”

“It’s one of those situations where we just try and get better,” said Hill. “Our focus in our practice (on) Saturday (with the) canceled game was defense. We worked hard on ground (balls). Those guys all got about 100 grounders and it showed tonight (Tuesday). Guys played well and made really good plays and got behind their pitchers, which was really big for us.”