Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette Northern Driveline’s Chad Nordstrom is greeted at home plate by a teammate on Thursday after scoring in a game against Houghton Building Supply-Stanton in Stanton.

STANTON- Northern Driveline extended their winning streak to three games on Thursday with a 7-2 win over Houghton Building Supply-Stanton. It was another team effort in the eyes of Northern’s player-coach Evan Larson and led by winning pitcher Brent Loukus.

“Brent did a great job mixing up pitches,” Larson said. “He threw a heck of a game, keeping them off balance. Their only runs came on our errors.”

Northern (6-6) jumped on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second thanks to a string of hits by Brent Loukus, Larson and Tom Pietila. All three slapped singles with Loukus and Larson both scoring.

They added another two in a similar fashion an inning later. This time it was Chad Nordstrom and Justin Heinonen who put ball to bat off Stanton’s starter Eli Louma and crossed home. It was now a 4-0 game.

Larson summed up his squad effort the best by saying, “We are hitting the ball well – up and down the lineup. It is good to see everyone contributing.”

Stanton’s (2-8) first of two runs came in the top of the fourth when Louma reached first on a walk and came home on a missed played ball hit by player-coach Daron Durocher.

Their second run came in the sixth with Durocher scoring. However, Northern had added three in the bottom of the fourth. In that frame, Buzz Rajala and Chad Nordstrom both earned their way on and came home on a Heinonen triple. Axel Loukus scored that inning as well.

“I guess you could say we are in slump,” noted Durocher. “Our problem is finding a consistent lineup to put on the field, but we have one more week and hopefully we can end well.”

UP NEXT

Next week is the last week of regular season play for the Twilight League. On Tuesday, Stanton will play a double header against Craig Heinonen-Coldwell Banker at 6 p.m. in Stanton. That same night, in Wolverine, Garnet Garage will face REL-Mohawk Technologies at 6:30 p.m.