GWINN — The Marquette County Mavericks ended their quest to defend their Superiorland Baseball League playoff championship after losing to the Escanaba Polecats 6-4 in the semifinals on Thursday.

Esky is scheduled to play in the championship game on Monday against the winner of this past Monday’s other semifinal between No. 4 seed Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen of Marquette County and No. 1 Channing Railroaders of northern Dickinson County.

A time and site for the title game has yet to be determined.

In Thursday’s game, starter Steve Hintsala and reliever Jacob Adriano each pitched three innings for the Mavericks, while Jon Bitner went the first six for Esky as teammate Elliot Danhoff pitched the seventh inning for the save.

Esky was the home team as the No. 2 seed while MCM came in at No. 3.

Hintsala led the Mavs at the plate, going 3 for 3 with two homers and all four of his team’s RBIs. The Polecats’ Bailey Lamb was 2 for 2 with a double, RBI, run scored and two walks.

Hintsala got MCM off to a fast start with a solo homer with two outs in the top of the first, but Esky answered with single runs in their half of the first and in the second to go up 2-1. In the opening inning, Lamb hit a two-out single to send home Jake LaFave, who had earlier singled, while in the second, LaFave also hit a two-out single to score Brandon Olson, yet another player who had singled.

Mavs player-manager James Larsen II tied the game in the top of the third when he reached on an error and scored on a Hintsala single.

The game continued to be back and forth as Esky retook a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third when Lamb doubled and scored, but in the fifth, Hintsala cracked a two-run homer after teammate Sam Prentice reached on a single to make it 4-3 MCM.

The Polecats had the final answer, though, in the sixth when Ben Snyder cranked out a three-run homer to center field after Carson Shea singled and Jared Dagenais walked for the final 6-4 margin.

In this league now in its fourth year, Thursday’s result ended the three-year reign of the Mavericks as SBL playoff champs. The Mavs had also won the Upper Peninsula Baseball championship game the past two Septembers when the Superiorland champ faced the winner of the Twilight League from the Copper Country.

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