Whoever faces Portage Lake better be ready as they were red hot in all aspects of the game Tuesday night against Negaunee. The team put together a no-hit shutout and leading the charge was starting pitcher, Brycyn Nettell. Over the course of five innings, he threw 10 strikeouts and allowed only one walk. His partner in crime was Benny Keranenn who threw the last inning in relief, striking out two.

“We had the pitching today,” said Portage Lake’s manager Daron Durocher of Nettell’s effort. “He was a last-minute substitution to pitch, and he came threw like none other. He was consistent and made the batters work by varying his speed.”

Durocher added that not only was Nettell on top of his game, but so was the rest of his squad.

“Up and down our lineup, we had production, and that is what it takes. This was a team game,” he said.

Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette Keweenaw’s Lucas Axford connects with a pitch during a game against Penokee Range in the Little League Minors Division 11 Tournament Tuesday in South Range.

In the first inning, Negaunee gave up two walks that turned into two runs.

In the second inning, with two outs, Portage Lake outfielder Brexton Kinnunen walked, shortstop Brody Donnelly got a base hit to left and second baseman Conner Helminen followed with a walk to load the bases. Keranen then stepped up to the plate and smacked a bases-clearing triple to make the score 5-0 after two.

Meanwhile, Portage played excellent defense. They made the routing plays when they were supposed to. Three more runs came in their half of the fourth inning in part from another big hit by Keranen to put the game out of reach for Negaunee.

“It was certainly a different type of game for us,” said Negaunee’s manager Dean Leece. “On Sunday, everything was going right for us against Penokee Range, but tonight we couldn’t buy a hit and things just got away from us in the field.”

He added though that his squad will give it another shot Wednesday against Keweenaw, and he is grateful for that.

In Tuesday’s other game in South Range, Keweenaw mercied Penokee Range in just five innings. It was a back-and forth battle for the first two innings before the game got out of hand.

Penokee came out of the dugout with a 2-0 lead thanks to a couple of errors, a walk and a line-drive single by their shortstop Cayden Harju.

In the bottom of the first, Keweenaw countered with a run of their own and would tack on two more in the second to make the score 3-2 after two.

However things fell apart for Penokee in the third a they gave up six more runs on a combination of singles by Keweenaw’s Tyler Halonen, Ryan Rajala, and Jax Carlson. A walk here and there certainly did not help Penokee’s cause, nor did several fielding errors in their infield.

“We started off well and then we had that one bad inning,” said their manager Corey Aspinwall. “Such is Little League baseball with nine and 10-year olds. But it was a good experience as we went 2-2 in this tournament and the kids got some extra playing time.”

Keweenaw’s manager Nick Hendrickson was quite happy with the complete effort his players put into this victory.

“We came out, and we were fired up,” he said. “The boys really wanted this one. We hit the ball and took care of the infield. Our pitchers took care of business.”

Keweenaw and Negaunee will face each other at 6 p.m. Wednesday in South Range.