Kingsford's Brett Swanson takes a big lead at first base in Tuesday's American Legion game against Escanaba at Al Ness Field. Swanson had an RBI single and scored a run in Kingsford's 4-1 six-inning victory. (Mike Mattson/The Daily Press)

ESCANABA — The Escanaba Cubs had a hard time getting hits off 16-year-old C.J. Bolo Tuesday night as they dropped a 4-1 American Legion baseball decision to the Kingsford Blues at Al Ness Field.

Bolo, who pitched the entire contest, scattered four hits, struck out seven and walked two.

“In my eyes he’s an extreme talent,” said Kingsford head coach Dek Forstrom. “C.J. has really been on his game and he works hard at it. He doesn’t walk a lot of people.”

Compounding Esky’s problems was the lack of timely hitting to go with four fielding errors in a contest halted by rain and lightning after six frames.

“We make way too many mental mistakes,” Esky head coach Jon Bintner said. “We’re capable of hitting. To me, that’s one of our strengths. Tonight, we saw a little different pitching and it took us too long to adjust. It’s situational hitting. You can’t strike out, pop the ball up in the infield or hit to third base when you have a baserunner on third.”

Esky stranded eight baserunners in the contest, leaving runners on third in the third and sixth.

Kingsford’s Brett Swanson scored on an error and Colin Erickson gave the Blues a 2-0 cushion on Hunter Lindeman’s sacrifice fly to leftfield in the second.

The Blues raised the count to 3-0 on Brett Swanson’s line shot single to left in the third. Swanson them made it 4-0 on balk moments later.

“We hit the ball well and played pretty good defense,” Forstrom said. “Tonight, we had only one player over age 16 in our lineup and had a couple kids who came through on the leadership end. It’s always fun coming here. Escanaba has such a nice facility. We enjoy playing here.”

Esky’s lone run came on Drew Serrer’s double to left in the fifth.

“We’re the type of team that has to keep the score down,” Bintner said. “We have to keep people off the bases. I’m elated with how we battled. We scored a run and had a chance to score a couple more.”

Kingsford (6-8) collected six hits, led by Lindeman with two. Cody Frappier had a pair for the Cubs (6-11), who are scheduled to visit Ishpeming tonight.

Losing pitcher Noah Lancour also went the distance. He fanned one, walked one and hit a batter.

“I think Noah did a fanstastic job pitching despite what was going on in the field,” Bintner said.

Kingsford, which finished with two errors, hosts Bark River in a doubleheader Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CDT.