Before they head south for four games next week in the Panama City Beach Bash, the Marshals hosted Caldwell County on Friday for the first of two games this season with the Tigers. The Marshals have won the last four games played against Caldwell County going back to the 2019 season but the Tigers ended that streak with a 3-2 win.
The Marshals struck first with a run in the bottom of the second. Reese Oakley singled followed by a double hit by Kaden Merrick. Alex Staples’ sacrifice fly to right field brought Oakley across home plate.
Caldwell County tied it up in the top of the third. With two on base and two outs, Ari Wells hit a single that scored the tying run.
Gavin Clark worked his way out of a tough spot in the fifth inning, giving up one run after the first two up were hit by pitches. Caldwell County scored on a fielder’s choice that was followed by an error. Clark caught Channing Puckett swinging for the third out of the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Staples led off with a single, Clayton Wyatt drew a walk with two outs and they loaded up the bases when Maddox Cope was hit by a Cole Slone pitch, but they left the three baserunners stranded.
Caldwell County went up 3-1 in the top of the seventh, scoring on a double hit by Carter Whittington.
In their final bat of the night, the Marshals put the potential tying runs on base off singles by Staples and Jace Driver. A sacrifice fly by Wyatt scored Staples and Driver was left stranded with the final out.
Stone earned the win for the Tigers, allowing five hits and two runs over seven innings of work and they improve to 10-2. Clark struck out four and surrendered two runs and two hits in the loss and the Marshals drop to 3-8.
Caldwell 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 | 3 4 1
Marshall 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 | 2 5 1
Marshall: Wyatt (RBI), Oakley 1/2, Merrick 1/2 (2B), Staples 2/2 (RBI), Driver 1/2
Caldwell: Wells 1/4 (2 RBI), Puckett 1/3, Whittington 1/4 (2B, RBI), Ginn 1/1
Marshall: Clark 5.0 (2 hits, 2 runs), Dunn 2.0 (2 hits, 1 run)
Caldwell: Slone 7.0 (5 hits, 2 runs)
The Marshals picked up a 4-3 win over St. Mary this past week, sandwiched between two losses to Benton, Ill. 8-3 and Munster, In. 12-2.
The Vikings led off with two runs in the top of the first, scoring both on a triple off the bat of Aidan Hrdlicka. The Marshals cut it in half with a run in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a sacrifice fly hit by Gavin Clark.
St. Mary brought a run across on an error in the top of the fourth, but their 3-1 lead was wiped out in the bottom of the sixth when the Marshals loaded up the bases on a single by Preston Holman, walk from Kaden Merrick and Kannon Dunn single. A two-out single by Chase Shelton brought two runs home and a Clayton Wyatt single scored the third of the inning for the 4-3 win.
Three Marshall County pitchers combined for seven strikeouts led by Thomas Bagby with five over the first five innings. Matthew Henderson pitched one inning and earned the win, allowing one hit and no runs while the save went to Jace Driver. Brett Haas took the loss for St. Mary, after striking out nine and giving up seven hits and three earned of four runs.
St. Mary 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 | 3 5 0
Marshall 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 | 4 7 1
Marshall: Wyatt 1/3 (RBI), Cope 1/3, Clark 1/2 (RBI), Holman 1/2, Merrick 1/2, Henson 1/1, Shelton 1/3 (2 RBI)
St. Mary: Durbin 1/3 (2B), Sims 1/4, Hrdlicka 1/3 (3B, 2 RBI), Norris 2/3
Marshall: Bagby 5.0 (4 hits, 3 runs), Henderson 1.0 (1 hit, 0 runs), Driver 1.0 (0 hits, 0 runs)
St. Mary: Haas 5.2 (7 hits, 4 runs), Sims 0.1 (0 hits, 0 runs)
