GWINN — Tyler Skufca pitched two innings and hit an opposite-field homer run to give his team the lead for good in the Marquette County Mavericks’ 8-4 win over Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen on Monday night in the final week of the regular season in the Superiorland Baseball League.

Coldwell-Craig Heinonen gets a rematch in just five days, though, in the league playoff semifinals at 11 a.m. EDT Saturday in Channing. The No. 1 seeded Railroaders defeated Jill Leonard-State Farm 12-2 in Monday’s other game.

Channing faces the Negaunee Blasters in the other semifinal following the CBCH-Mavericks game on Saturday, which will then be followed about a half-hour later by the playoff championship tilt.

In addition, the league announced Monday that its playoff champion will play the champion of the Copper Country-based Twilight League in a second annual Upper Peninsula Championship game with a tentative date of Sept. 8 at a site to be determined.

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Mavericks 8, Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen 4

At Gwinn, Paul Storm, Steve Daavettila and Gabe Daavettila scored in the top of the first inning to give Coldwell a quick 3-0 lead. The Mavs responded with a two-run homer by Sam Prentice, which included Jake Spear coming home after singling, to cut its deficit to 3-2.

Spear then hit his own solo homer in the second to tie it 3-3 before Aaron “Goose” Adriano walked and Skufca hit his tiebreaking homer to make it 5-3 Mavs after three innings.

MCM added insurance in the fourth with three more runs as Spear, Prentice and Steve Hintsala had hits. Coldwell got the game’s final run in the fifth after Storm singled and scored, but no runs were scored in the final two innings.

Hintsala, Prentice and Skufca each worked two innings for the winners, while Adriano came on for the seventh. Gabe Daavettila and Storm were the first two of three CBCH pitchers.

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Channing 12, Jill Leonard-State Farm 2

At Channing, the host Railroaders (7-1) used a seven-run first inning that included five walks and two-run base hits by Mike Miller and Kyle Sexton.

An RBI single by Wade Holsworth triggered the 10-run mercy rule in the sixth inning.

State Farm (2-8) scored a run in the third and sixth innings as Sexton and Dane Vandenheuvel pitched for Channing.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.