Negaunee’s Ayla Swanson connects on a pitch from Portage Lake hurler Allie Mettlach during a District 11 tournament game in Little League Minors softball on Sunday at Houghton High School. (Daily Mining Gazette photo by Daver Karnosky)

HOUGHTON — The Portage Lake Little League Minors softball team got contributions from seven of their nine hitters in a win over Marquette on Saturday.

Then on Sunday, all nine batters got involved as Portage Lake defeated Negaunee 15-0 in the Copper Country crew’s next District 11 tournament game.

Marquette and Negaunee were scheduled to meet Monday evening in the loser’s bracket to determine who will face Portage Lake at 6 p.m. today back at the Houghton High School field.

In the second inning on Sunday, each of the nine PL hitters drew walks and scored in a 10-batter inning that saw Portage Lake turn a 4-0 advantage into a 13-0 bulge.

“It’s a strong group of girls, for sure,” PL manager Phil Pietila said. “A lot of second-year girls, just a couple first-year girls on their whole roster.

“So I like our group a lot. I think if they play the way they can play, we’ve got a pretty good team right now.”

Negaunee did not have an answer for how hard PL pitcher Allie Mettlach threw from the pitcher’s circle. She issued a walk to start the game, and that was one of just two baserunners Negaunee had in three innings. Their other was a one-out single by Ayla Swanson in the second.

“She pitched a gem today,” Pietila said about Mettlach’s performance, “a lot of strikes. She throws a lot of strikes. She throws a hard ball, too.

“So super happy to have her and Avery (Pietila) as pitchers. It’s going to help our group down the stretch.”

Between Mettlach and Avery Pietila, Portage Lake pitchers have given up just one hit in two games.

“Our pitchers have been working on the mental side of it,” Coach Pietila said. “As you know, (it’s) a mental game, too. When you have a bad pitch, you have a couple bad pitches.

“You get down 3-0 in a count, you have to battle back, and they play travel ball, so they’re used to the mental side, for sure.”

While Mettlach thrived in the circle, Negaunee pitchers Eliana Fredrick and Kenley Laitala struggled with their control throughout, which led to the nine walks in the second and a number of passed balls that led to runs.

Negaunee manager Matt Perry, while disappointed with the final score, felt his team worked hard to battle through their mistakes. They also had to deal with their Saturday game against Baraga-Lake of the Clouds had been delayed by rain and wasn’t finished until Sunday morning, a few hours before they faced Portage Lake.

“The girls were all hyped up this morning,” the Negaunee manager said. “I think the little lull in between the games (was) a little too much rest time.

“But they did good. They played well. They had fun.”

As the walks mounted, Perry was more concerned with making sure his team continued to put the effort in, and he was happy with what they were able to accomplish despite the score.

“(It’s hard to) keep that energy up and just try to keep those kids focused,” he said. “They were doing everything they could. They had fun.

“(We) just try to keep the positive attitude with them.

“Once you get that down inside of your head, it’s hard to pop them back out of it. So they did good. I’m proud of them. They just (have) little things we have to clean up.”

In the bottom of the first inning, Portage Lake got to work. Avery Pietila drew a walk to lead off, stole second and got to third on a Mettlach sacrifice before scoring on a passed ball.

Meanwhile, Anna Hanson walked and stole second. A passed ball moved her to third before a Raegan Riley sacrifice brought her home. Miina Heinonen then walked and advanced to third on a pair of passed balls.

McKinley Soli singled to right field to bring Heinonen home, and several more passed balls brought Soli home to make it 4-0 Portage Lake.

The score remained that way until the second, when Ivy Biekkola led off with a walk. Teammates Hadley Koski, Avery Koski, Mettlach, Hanson and Riley moved around the bases on a series of walks and passed balls to make it 10-0.

About that time, Laitala came in to pitch for Fredrick, and a few more walks and passed balls were issued before the nine-run rally ended.

As they came to the plate in the bottom of the third, Portage Lake could trigger the mercy rule win with two more runs.

Hanson, Riley and Heinonen each singled to load the bases with one out and Soli stepping up to the plate. She dropped a fly ball down the first-base line just behind the first baseman and in front of the right fielder that turned that into a bases-clearing triple.

With Hanson and Riley both crossing the plate, PL reached the 15-run threshold to invoke that run rule.