Calumet's John Golus (7) is welcomed home by teammate Drake Niemela (13) District 65 semifinal game against Westwood Saturday at the Hancock Driving Park. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — The District 65 baseball tournament was in full swing on Saturday at the Hancock Driving Park. It featured three games, with the Negaunee Miners winning two of them to clinch the district title.

They downed the Hancock Bulldogs in semifinal play, 4-2, and then outscored the Copper Kings, 7-1, in the title game.

“We were gritty and found ways to win games,” said Miners coach Jason Siik. “That’s how we have played all year round.”

In the title game against the Copper Kings (8-17), the Miners jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one and never looked back. A walk to Morgan Robar and a single by Jack Siik off of Calumet’s starter Joe Halonen put two ducks on the pond for Evan Dellangelo. He came through with a hard hit ball to the left side which allowed two runs to score. Dellangelo scored later on a misplayed ball by Calumet’s Charlie Halonen in right field.

The Miners (33-6) made in 4-0 in the third in similar fashion. Siik was hit a pitch and made it across home on another Dellangelo base hit.

While the Copper Kings posted one run in the fourth with John Golus scoring on an error, that was as good as it got for the Copper Kings. They struggled at the plate against Miner’s starter Owen Cardinal much to the disappointment of Calumet’s coach David Yeo.

“We were caught looking at too many third strikes,” stated Yeo. “You have to swing the bat.”

Cardinal went five and one-third innings allowing just two hits, three walks and striking out 10 along the way. Dellangelo came in to close the game.

“Game ball goes to Owen,” said his coach. “He threw great and got people out when we needed it.”

The Miners added three more runs in the sixth inning to earn the 7-1 victory. They will head to Gladstone for a Region 33 semifinal game against the Braves on Wednesday.

Calumet 6, Westwood 4

Calumet’s journey to the district finals began with a win over the Westwood Patriots. It was a back-and-forth battle with the Copper Kings up 2-0 after four innings only to have the Patriots take a 3-2 lead in the fifth.

Westwood added another in the sixth (4-2), but the Copper Kings countered with four of their own in that same frame and sealed the deal at 6-4.

“I liked how we worked around a lot of jams,” noted Yeo. “Westwood stuck around and threatened with bases loaded a couple of times, but we stayed the course and played good defense.”

Darin Berg earned the win for the Copper Kings. In six and two-third innings, he struck out 12 and walked just two.

“He pitched a gem,” stated Yeo. “He got ahead of the batters in the count, and that made a huge difference. ”

Negaunee 4, Hancock 2

Negaunee punched their ticket with a semifinal win over Hancock (11-12).

Negaunee set the tone in this one with a 3-0 lead after their first at bat. Swinging a big bat that inning were Cardinal, Robar and Jack Siik. Cardinal and Siik had doubles, and Robar poked a single to right off of Bulldogs’ starter Caleb Isaacson. All three scored.

While the Bulldogs scored in the third and the fifth, it proved too little too late.

Tristan Slater earned the win for the Miners. He threw six innings – striking out six and walking just three along the way.

“Negaunee had a big first inning lead and we could not overcome that,” noted Hancock coach Travis Pietila. “We battled hard though. It was a good season with a lot of improvement for such a young team.”