STANTON — Superior National Bank-Stanton took care of business Tuesday evening at home, but visiting Garnet Garage made their best showing this season so far against the second-place team in Copper Country Twilight League baseball action. The 12-3 final score in SNB-Stanton’s favor may not indicate a close game, but Garnet was able to plate a run in three of the first four innings, including the opening score in the top of the first inning when Eli Oldt drove in Carter Crouch with an RBI single.

After being outscored 37-0 in the three previous meetings of these clubs this season, perhaps not much was expected from Garnet, but they battled hard throughout the contest. SNB-Stanton’s offense was steady however and pulled away with three runs scored in the fourth and four more in the sixth inning.

SNB-Stanton pitching was also effective. Starter Al Nettell earned the win with three runs allowed on five hits while striking out two and walking five in four innings. Good early run support helped overcome what could have been costly early throwing errors around the SNB-Stanton infield.

In the fifth inning, Justin Kirby took over on the mound for SNB-Stanton and slammed the door in the ball game. Kirby retired the first six batters he faced and eight out of nine in his three-inning relief appearance. He allowed only a seventh-inning double to Crouch amid four strikeouts, zero walks and five ground outs.

Veteran righty Rob Brooks took the complete-game loss for Garnet with a line of 12 runs on 16 hits, striking out four and walking two batters. Garnet skipper Joe Romano wanted to give credit where credit is due, while applauding the effort of his players.

“Well, (SNB-Stanton is) a good team, great team, great baseball team and they were missing some key players, but they’re just so deep from top to bottom that they’re hard to beat. And they got great pitching,” said Romano. “I’m proud of our kids. We’re young, you know … then we have Brooks and I respect Brooks because he pitched a good game. He’s positive with the kids and you can’t ask for much more.”

Tom Durocher, acting manager for SNB-Stanton in place of Daron Durocher, called out a couple of individual efforts in this victory for his squad.

“Kirby is solid,” said Durocher. “He’s one of our starters. We need him in the playoffs. We need him for this run to get us to the playoffs. We need him to do what he does and that’s what he did (tonight). Trent Keteri got a little hot today as well.”

Both teams are scheduled for action again on Thursday. SNB-Stanton (7-4) takes on Dean Kangas-State Farm at the Hancock Driving Park, while Garnet Garage (2-10) returns to the Stanton Ball Field to face REL Inc.-Mohawk Technology. First pitch for both clashes is set for 6:30 pm.