Congress Pizza’s Luke Gray, right, slides back to first base while the Marquette County Mavericks’ Aaron Adriano waits for a throw Monday evening at the Forsyth Township Ball Park in Gwinn. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

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GWINN — Aaron Adriano knocked two home runs over the fence and the Marquette County Mavericks put on an offensive show with a 14-2 victory over Congress Pizza in a Superiorland Baseball League game at the Forsyth Township Ball Field in Gwinn on Monday night.

In other league games played Monday, the Negaunee Blasters defeated 906 Sports Bar & Grill 13-4, while the Channing Railroaders held off Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen 9-1.

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Marquette County Mavericks 14, Congress Pizza 2

The Mavericks improved to 5-1 in the inaugural season of this Marquette County-based adult baseball league while Congress Pizza fell to 2-4 overall.

The Mavericks brought in runs early and often, racing to a 6-0 lead after the second inning.

Mavericks player-manager James Larsen II said it’s satisfying to see his team hitting the ball.

“We had some timely hitting and the three home runs help in clutch situations,” Larsen said. “It was nice to see the way the guys are swinging the bat overall.”

Congress would get its two runs in the top of the fourth when Luke Gray came home to score on a single to right field by Travis Willamaki. Two batters later, Cory Larson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded bringing another run home to make the game 6-2.

That would be as close as Congress would get as Adriano came up with a single in the bottom of the fourth to score Spencer Larson.

Congress manager Eli Wolf said despite the blowout loss, he liked some of the things he saw from his young team today.

“Last week we struck out nine times in five innings and we lowered the strikeouts a lot this game,” he said. “The guys put the ball in play with two strikes. We have a young team so the hitting approach was nice.”

Wolf also complimented his defense in the contest.

“I thought the middle infield did a good job diving around and stopping some balls,” Wolf said.

Adriano hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the sixth to give the Mavs an 8-2 lead. Later in the inning, Steve Hintsala hit a three-run blast and that would be more than enough to seal the victory.

Superiorland Baseball League play continues at 6:30 p.m. Monday with the Mavericks taking on Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen at the Forsyth Township Ball Field while Congress Pizza faces the Channing Railroaders in Channing.

Larsen, also a founder of the league, said the inaugural season has been successful so far.

“It’s good to be out here, it’s good to play ball,” he said. “This is what we wanted, get as many people out here that want to play and can play; just have a league where guys can continue to do what they love, and that’s what it’s all about.”

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Negaunee Blasters 13, 906 Sports Bar & Grill 4

At Irontown Field in Negaunee, Tylor Robinson picked up the win for the Blasters after giving up three runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in three innings of work.

Negaunee’s Dre Tuominen also had a solid night on the mound in relief of Robinson as he threw the remaining four innings, giving up one run on four hits with eight strikeouts and three walks.

Robinson also led Negaunee offensively as he went 3 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs, while Tayler Laurin had two hits with a stolen base and two runs scored. Erik Voskuhl went 1 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored for the Blasters.

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Channing Railroaders 9, Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen 1

At Channing, the home Railroaders scored seven runs in the top of the ninth to put the game away after Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen trailed just 2-1 entering the inning.

No other details were available.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.