Iron Mountain junior Connor Pickett slides into home ahead of a throw collected by Kingsford freshman catcher Colin Olsen after tagging up from third during the sixth inning Monday at LiUNA Field. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Pickett was ruled to have left third early and was called out. (Ron Deuter photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN – Kingsford’s three-week win streak was put to the test against Iron Mountain Monday afternoon at LiUNA Field, but the Flivvers were able to do just enough to hold off an improving Mountaineer squad 5-2 and claim their ninth straight victory.

With Kingsford routinely pounding its competition during its current run of victories, the Mountaineers limited the Flivvers to just four hits while ending a streak of five straight games in which Kingsford scored double digits in runs.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it’s one of those things,” Flivvers head coach Joe Kriegl said. “A win is a win for us, and that’s big because we’ve got some big games coming up. Not that we played bad, but we do need to play better. We just came off a big weekend where we hit the ball really well. We just crushed the ball, the bats were unbelievably hot. Hats off to Iron Mountain. They stayed in the game and put themselves in a position where they could have easily won.”

Juniors Connor Pickett and Brayden Kassin combined to stifle the red-hot Flivver bats. Pickett went four innings, charged with just one of the Flivvers five runs while allowing three hits and four walks with a strikeout. Kassin allowed just one more hit after entering with no one out in the fifth, fanning three and walking one.

A four run second-inning helped Kingsford wipe out an early 1-0 hole, and if not for a pair of walks and an error to load the bases with nobody out, the Flivvers might not have scored at all. A passed ball with the bases juiced allowed Kingsford to tie the game before a pop-out for the first out. What should have been the third out if not for the earlier error, turned into a go-ahead run when junior Jonah Doenier grounded to third and was thrown out at first as freshman Luke Rice scored from third.

Consecutive hit batsman after that set the table for junior Noah Trulock, who punched a top-spinning chopper through the right side to plate two more runs. Trulock led the Flivver offense in the game with three of the four hits.

Outside of the second inning setback and some sporadic control issues, the Mountaineers made plays when they needed them. Freshman catcher Gavin Winters gunned down a base stealer at second to end a threat in the third. In the fourth inning, Pickett induced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. And the Mountaineers gunned down another runner at home on a fielder’s choice for the second out in the fifth.

“We’ve been concentrating on trying to limit the damage, and we’ve been making the plays when they’re out there more often,” Mountaineers head coach Mike Pickett said. “We got to get our bats going. We’ve been playing much better baseball the past few games, and it will start turning into wins soon.”

Kingsford pitcher Domenic Frederickson (3-0) produced another solid strike-filled outing, allowing just three Mountaineer hits over six innings with one earned run, eight strikeouts and two walks. Senior Jack Kriegl pitched the final inning to pick up the save, mowing down two more Mountaineers in the process.

Winters tallied two of Iron Mountain’s hits, including a first-inning two-out single to center to bring in the game’s first run. The Mountaineers added their second run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Lane Wender.

Iron Mountain thought it had a run on the previous play as well but it was taken off the board by the home plate umpire ruling that a runner tagging from third to score on a sacrifice fly left the base too early. The Mountaineers had two one with nobody out ahead of that double play – the call certainly killing momentum from what might have been an even bigger inning for the Mountaineers.

Kingsford’s fifth run crossed in the fifth inning, which made it 5-1. Trulock opened the inning with a single and later scored on a passed ball.

Kingsford, now back to even at 9-9, will honor its seniors Thursday when Escanaba visits in what will be the Flivvers’ final home game of the regular season.

Iron Mountain (2-10) hosts Manistique Thursday afternoon.

“We’re going to try to get the bats going, play good defense and smart baseball,” Pickett said. “Sooner or later it will all work out. The kids are getting excited too, knowing they can compete. We want to start winning, and wins are going to lead to more wins.”