Keweenaw Little League All-Stars’ Luke Hamlin bats against Marquette in the District 11 tournament Monday, July 5, 2021, in South Range. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

SOUTH RANGE — The area’s Little League post season kicked off on Monday night with the Michigan 2021 District 11 All-Star tournament.

The double-elimination, six-team tournament is being hosted by Portage Lake Little League all this week.

Keweenaw faced Marquette in the opening game and came out on top with a 6-5 win.

“We hit the ball well and all of our pitchers did great tonight,” said Keweenaw’s manager Nick Hendrickson. “It was a team win.”

Keweenaw’s Oskar Loukus came out swinging in the first with a home run to put the home team on top with just one out in the bottom of the first.

“Oskar had a great night. Not just with that first blast but he had a nice hit later in the game that help keep us on top,” added Hendrickson.

Keweenaw would add four more runs in the bottom of the second. The boys in blue were hungry for hits as they stepped up to the plate batter after looking for base raps. In the second, those hits came off the bats of Jax Carlson and Brady Axford. Meanwhile Keweenaw’s starting hurler Joel Halonen threw strikes. He struck out Marquette’s side in the second inning and allowed just one Marquette run which came at the top of the third.

“It was bullpen by committee for us today,” Hendrickson said. “Joel pitched well to open the game. and then Brady Axford, Tyler (Axford) and Luke Hamlin all did well to get us the win.”

The game wold remain 5-1 until the top of the fifth. That’s when Marquette put together a three- run rally. Two walks and a couple of errors in the Keweenaw field as well as a triple by Jonas Snapp allowed Wesley Robinson, Cooper Andersen and Snapp to all cross home.

While Marquette would score one more run in the top of the sixth off a Dylan Pond RBI triple, Keweenaw countered with a tally of their own to keep the one-run lead and eventual victory.

“Overall I thought we did well,” said Marquette’s manager Dylan Abbot. “We had one too many errors in the field and we need to work on base running before our next game.”

Marquette 001 031 — 5

Keweenaw 140 00x — 6