Houghton pitcher Gaborik Carlson delivers a pitch to Hancock batter Todd Kilpela during the championship game of the WestPAC Tournament Saturday in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The title game of this weekend’s WestPAC baseball tournament had a copper sheen glistening from it as the Houghton Gremlins and Hancock Bulldogs slugged it out Saturday afternoon on the Houghton diamond. After five innings of play, the Gremlins came out triumphant with a 6-4 win.

This late-season contest had six teams playing games at Hancock’s Driving Park and the Houghton High School field. Among the other teams were Iron Mountain, Calumet, Negaunee and Westwood. The championship game was Hancock’s third game of the day and Houghton’s second.

Hancock advanced by defeating the Westwood Patriots in the first round, 9-2, and the blanking the Negaunee Miners, 4-0, in semifinal action.

According to Travis Pietila, coach of the Bulldogs, error-free baseball was key to their path to the title game.

“We played very clean baseball against Westwood and Negaunee,” he said. “We might have committed three or four errors. That makes a huge difference.”

The Gremlins’ road to the title game included a bye in the first round and they then faced the Calumet. They blanked the Copper Kings 15-0. It was a game won on small ball executed well by the Gremlins.

“We must have bunted in five or six runs alone,” said Houghton coach Kevin Bostwick. “We took advantage of our speed on the base paths and how Calumet was playing us in the field.”

In the championship game, Gaborik Carlson was on the mound for the Gremlins against hurler Bryce Hanner for the Bulldogs.

Carlson helped his own cause with a double to start the bottom of the first. He touched home off a Cam Cischke line drive two batters later. The boys from Houghton made it a 2-0 lead in a similar fashion. Base hits by Hudson Markham and Eli Salo in that frame put the Gremlins up.

The third was Hancock’s only big inning at the plate. They scored four runs to take a brief 4-2 lead. A base rap by Braydon

Larson got the rally going. Catcher Luke Mikkola then walked, putting two men on base for third baseman Ned Larson to capitalize on, and he did just that with a double off the right-field fence. The game was tied, but the Bulldogs had just one out.

Hanner brought two men home on a double to left center. The Bulldogs finished with a 4-2 lead after the inning ended on strikeouts to Saku Cunard and Caleb Isaacson.

“I liked how we hit the ball consistently that inning,” said Pietila. “We have made big improvements at the plate — swinging at balls. Base hits win games.”

Base hits do indeed win games, but in the end, the Gremlins had the upper hand in this category as they wasted no time in tying the game at four after four innings thanks to two walks and an error by made by the Bulldogs.

Carlson and crew mowed down Hancock in the top of the fourth and set the stage for a two-run rally in their bottom half. Carlson again helped his own cause with a lead-off single to left and a stolen base. He then came home with ease on an Eli Heathman single up the middle.

Heathman would then core on a clutch hit by Cischke before the final out of the inning was made. Houghton led at that point, 6-4, and that is how it remained despite Hancock having the tying run at second in the top of the fifth with no one out.

“This was a team win,” Bostwick said. “Guys stepped up and put the ball in play when we needed it. Gaborik threw a good game, and his teammates backed him up.”

Up next

Both the Gremlins (15-4) and the Bulldogs (6-8-1) head into the final two weeks of regular-season play with winning on their minds as district play is scheduled to start on the first weekend in June.