GWINN — The Marquette Country Mavericks survived a late rally by Mikey D’s Beer Cave to post a 6-3 victory on Monday night at the Forsyth Township Ballfield Complex and take over first place in the Superiorland Baseball League.

The Escanaba team, league champions in 2022, scored once and brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning of a game plagued by sporadic rain as each team entered the game at 2-0.

In the end, Mavs’ starting pitcher Doug Turnbull earned his second victory this season by going four innings and allowing two earned runs, both being plated on a two-run homer to center field by Mikey D’s Rhiley Korhonen that brought Mason Korhonen in ahead of him.

MCM’s Parker Maki struck out seven in going the final three innings for the save, then also went 2 of 3 at the plate with an RBI, two runs scored and a walk.

The Mavs opened the scoring in the first when James Larsen II scored on a Sam Prentice single to center before Esky took a 2-1 lead on Rhiley Korhonen’s homer the following inning.

MCM retook a 3-2 advantage in the bottom of the second with Justin Renfors and Luke Kostreva scoring, then made it 4-2 in the fourth after Maki collected a hit and stole both third base and home.

The home team took a big 6-2 lead in the sixth when Larsen and Maki scored on wild pitches before Mikey D’s got one back in the seventh on a unearned run scored by Hector Araguayan.

The league’s other game, Channing vs. Hubbard’s Marsh The Band, was postponed due to rain, leaving Channing at 1-1 and Hubbard’s at 0-2.

The league takes the next two Mondays off from league play as part of the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, while one or several teams are scheduled to play in the Leo Durocher Memorial Tournament in Stanton, just outside Houghton, the weekend of July 8-9.

The Superiorland loop returns to regular play on July 17 when the Mavericks play Hubbard’s at 6:30 p.m. in Negaunee and Channing takes on Mikey D’s in Escanaba at 7:30 p.m.

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