MARQUETTE — The Marquette Oldtimers softball team tried to get two for the price of one on Friday night at its home field in Marquette, but instead the opposition got all the spoils of victory.

Gwinn opened an Oldtimers doubleheader with a narrow 8-6 victory over Marquette before Negaunee came along and pulled out a 5-4 nailbiter over their long-time Queen City rivals, all the action taking place at Hurley Field in south Marquette.

There’s been no word on the upcoming Oldtimers schedule, but it’s likely that several more games will be attempted to be scheduled involving Gwinn.

Here are details from each game:

Gwinn 8, Marquette 6

The visitors from the south built an 8-1 lead before the home team mounted a furious seventh-inning comeback that fell just short.

With information provided by one of the night’s umpires, Roland “Foo” Koski of Negaunee, he noted that Gwinn’s Jerry Zaborowski cracked triples in the second and sixth innings to knock in a total of three runs and score twice on infield groundouts.

Gwinn scored twice in the second inning, then once in the fourth, twice in the fifth and three times in the sixth. Marquette got a run in the second before its late rally.

Marquette’s five-run bottom-of-the-seventh included a pair of errors and run-scoring hits by Bob Robitaille, Rich McCarthy and Brian Schmeltzer.

Dave Derouin went the distance on the rubber for Gwinn and picked up the pitching victory, while Ed Bernard and Robitaille split hurling duties for the home squad.

Negaunee 5, Marquette 4

Negaunee used a rare double play in the seventh to help end Marquette’s final threat just a single run from tying the score.

Before that, these visitors scored four times in the second, the only runs by either team in the first three innings, according to Koski. Dave Anderson keyed Negaunee’s rally with an RBI single, while a bases-loaded walk and pair of infield errors helped bring the other runs in.

Marquette cut its deficit in half with two runs in the fourth after Don O’Neill singled, Steve Holman doubled and both scored on a two-base error.

The teams exchanged single runs in the sixth, making it 5-3 Negaunee entering the seventh and final inning. In the sixth, Ron Coron hit an RBI single for Negaunee, while an outfield error helped Marquette scratch out its run.

In the bottom of the seventh, a walk, two errors and a Joe Darcy single brought in a run to make it a one-run game with the tying run in scoring position.

That’s when a hard-hit grounder was fielded by Negaunee third baseman Steve Sarasin, who threw home for the forceout, then took a throw back to him for another out to complete the double play.

But that was the first two outs of the inning, so Negaunee pitcher Dan Niemi then had to strike out the final batter to end the game as he and Casey Smith split hurling chores for the visitors, while Robitaille and Jay Wilder pitched for Marquette.

Wilder, Darcy and Jay Killmar recorded two hits apiece for Marquette, but Negaunee still managed to forge a narrow 29-28 advantage in these two teams’ all-time series.

Marquette had tied the all-time series less than two weeks earlier with a 9-1 victory at Negaunee’s LaCombe Field on July 9.

Story contents based on email received from umpire Roland “Foo” Koski. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.