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3 Marquette County American Legion baseball teams head to Copper Country for Zone 5 tourney

The Marquette Blues’ Alec Beauchamp bats against the Marquette Reds on July 4 at Haley Memorial Field in Marquette. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

HANCOCK — With the Mid-Pen League American Legion baseball regular season and playoffs completed, the Copper Country Flames host the Zone 5 tournament this weekend.

The top three teams in the eight-team field after Sunday’s finale will qualify for the state tournament to be played in Gladwin starting Wednesday.

The talent in this year’s zone tournament might be the most even it has been in years, with five teams having the potential to emerge victorious.

“This tournament is up for grabs,” Flames manager Ron Stimac said. “There are five different teams that could win this tournament.”

One of the early favorites will be on display at 11:30 a.m. today as Gladstone takes on Negaunee. The Flames defeated Gladstone, 9-6, at the Sault Ste. Marie tournament back on July 8, but Gladstone is a very deep team with the ability to turn hits into runs quickly.

“Gladstone is a perennial powerhouse,” said Stimac. “They are coming off winning the Firecracker Tournament in Marinette and they won the Escanaba Tournament. They are very good.”

Negaunee’s team is very young, but that does not mean they are not competitive.

“They are young, they started their legion team up again,” said Stimac. “That’s all I can really say about them. They are going to struggle against Gladstone, I would think.”

Negaunee was a late replacement for Kingsford, which wasn’t able to field a full team for this event.

The second game is at 2 p.m. today and features Ishpeming vs. Menominee.

“They are very good,” Stimac said of Menominee, which the CC team lost to 5-4 in the Firecracker tourney. “They beat us in extra innings in the Mid-Pen playoffs. It was a tough one, we gave that one away. They are a very strong, competitive team. They finished second in our league.”

Ishpeming recently revived its program, too, and are a young, scrappy squad. The Flames beat them 4-3 in the Gregg Johnson Tournament before downing them 10-0 in the league playoffs.

“Ishpeming is real young,” Stimac said. “They have struggled all year long.”

Sault Ste. Marie faces Escanaba in the third game at 4:30 p.m. today.

“They are one of the other perennial powerhouses in the U.P.,” Stimac said about Escanaba. “They are a very good team. They have several college baseball players on their team. They should be real competitive.”

Sault Ste. Marie has seen a strong jump in the number of Legion-aged players this season, leading to a three-team system for the area. The team that will be on display this weekend is very strong, having already knocked off the Marquette Blues during their home tournament in early July.

“This is their first year in ‘A’,” Stimac said. “Their baseball program is strong over there. They are young, but they are very good.”

The final matchup today will feature the Marquette Blues and the host Flames. The Blues finished the regular season third in the Mid-Pen Conference, only to rise up in the playoffs and defeat Menominee to take the playoff title.

The Blues are 2-1 against the Flames this season after splitting a season-opening doubleheader and then topping Copper Country at the Sault Ste. Marie tournament 5-2.

“They are also very young, but they have continued to get better as the season has gone on,” Stimac said. “The Marquette Blues have always been one of those perennial powerhouses.”

The Flames are 9-6 on the season and went undefeated in conference play during the season. Of their six losses, three have been by one run and two more were by three or less.

Featuring a deep roster with players from L’Anse, Houghton, Hancock, Lake Linden and Gogebic County, the Flames have top players from several area high schools and have seen several players play well throughout the season.

Where the Flames are particularly strong is at pitcher, where they feature the likes of Hancock’s Hans Stimac and Carter Nettell, along with L’Anse’s Logan Fish.

“(Nettell and Fish) and my son, Hans, on the mound have been very, very strong for us,” Stimac said. “That’s probably our strength, our pitching.”

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