The Negaunee baseball team stands with its MHSAA Division 3 district tournament championship trophy after winning the District 65 title by defeating Calumet 7-1 in the finals on Saturday at the Hancock Driving Park. (Daily Mining Gazette photo by Eddie O’Neill)

HANCOCK — Negaunee traveled to the land of precious metals — otherwise known as the Copper Country — and won a pair of games Saturday to capture the district championship in MHSAA Division 3 baseball.

Playing at the Hancock Driving Park, the Miners downed the Hancock in one semifinal 4-2 before outscoring Calumet 7-1 in the title game.

Calumet (8-17) reached the finals by slipping past Westwood 6-4 in Saturday’s other semi.

“We were gritty and found ways to win games,” Negaunee manager Jason Siik said after his team improved to 33-6. “That’s how we have played all year round.”

In the title game, the Miners jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning and never looked back. A walk to Morgan Robar and a single by Jack Siik off of Calumet starter Joe Halonen put two ducks on the pond for Evan DellAngelo, who came through with a hard-hit ball to the left side that allowed two runs to score. DellAngelo scored later on a misplayed ball in right field.

The Miners made it 4-0 in the third in similar fashion. Jack Siik was hit a pitch and made it home on another DellAngelo base hit.

While Calumet posted a 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 Miners starter Owen Cardinal, much to the disappointment of CHS manager David Yeo.

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

Cardinal went 5 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits and three walks as he struck out 10 along the way. DellAngelo came in to close the game.

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

The Miners added three more runs in the sixth to round out the scoring.

Negaunee heads to Gladstone for a Division 3 regional semifinal game against the home-team Braves at 5 p.m. Wednesday. A win there gives the Miners the potential to play two games on Saturday at Traverse City Central — the regional championship game against Elk Rapids or TC St. Francis at noon, then the state quarterfinals against another Lower Peninsula team at 2:30 p.m.

Here are details from the regional semifinals played in Hancock:

Calumet 6, Westwood 4

This back-and-forth game saw Calumet take the first lead, 2-0, through four innings before Westwood came back with three runs in the fifth for a one-run advantage.

Westwood added another in the sixth to make it 4-2, but the Copper Kings countered with four runs in the bottom of the inning for the final 6-4 decision.

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

Darin Berg earned the win for the Copper Kings, going 6 2/3 innings, striking out 12 and walking just two.

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

Negaunee 4, Hancock 2

The Miners set the tone with a 3-0 lead in their first at-bat. Swinging big bats that inning were Cardinal, Robar and Jack Siik, who all scored. Cardinal and Siik had doubles, while Robar poked a single to right off of Bulldogs’ starter Caleb Isaacson.

While the Bulldogs (11-12) scored in the third and fifth, their single runs in those innings proved too little, too late.

Tristan Slater earned the pitching win for Negaunee, going six innings and striking out six while walking just three.

“Negaunee had a big first inning lead and we could not overcome that,” Hancock coach Travis Pietila said. “We battled hard, though.”