Houghton's Jackson VonDoloski at the plate for the Gremlins in their second game against the Hancock Bulldogs on Monday at the Driving Park in Hancock. VonDoloski threw a no-hitter for the Gremlins in the first game. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — After Monday night’s sweep of the Hancock Bulldogs, Houghton Gremlins baseball coach, Kevin Bostwick, quipped, in jest, that he is loving the new “transfer portal.”

“It gave us VonDoloski,” he said with a smile.

He was referring to the recent approval by the Houghton-Portage Township School board to co-op with the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City School District, allowing their athletes to play softball and baseball as a Gremlin.

VonDoloski, a senior, is the only baseball player from Dollar Bay on the Gremlins squad this season and a vital one.

On Monday, he threw a no-hitter in the first of two games against the Hancock Bulldogs at the Driving Park. In six innings, he faced 21 batters, striking out 12 and walking three, in the Gremlins 2-0 win.

They also won the second game, 7-2, and improved to 2-2 on the season.

“He pitched a gem,” stated Bostwick. “It was his first outing of the season.”

Scoring runs for the Gremlins were Joel Durocher in the first and Brycyn Nettell in the sixth.

In the second game the Gremlins jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first frame. Runs came courtesy of Durocher, Hudson Markham and Ethan Hainault – all RBIs in that inning.

Brayden Larson scored on an error for the Bulldogs in that bottom of the first.

The Gremlins added one more in the second, and another three in the fourth, to put this one at 7-1 heading into the later innings.

While the Bulldogs put another run across the plate in the sixth and loaded the bases, it was not enough. Consecutive hits by Benny Keranen, Ned Larson and Vince Heinonen were encouraging in this final frame for Hancock coach Travis Pietila.

“I liked how we got some base hits there at the end of the second game,” he said. “We obviously want that to carry over in to future games.”

Houghton’s Rylan Isaacson was the winning pitcher for the Gremlins. He threw a complete game while allowing just two runs. He struck out eight and walked one.

“Good pitching and hot bats are what we need.” noted Bostwick.

Up Next

The Gremlins are off until next Tuesday. They will travel to Calumet to face the Copper Kings that day. First game starts at 4 p.m.

Hancock will welcome the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes to the Driving Park Wednesday at 4 p.m.