Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Parker Terfehr winds up a pitch during their game against Creighton Prep on Saturday in Searles. The Mudcats fell to Creighton and Wayzata at the Upper Midwest Classic tournament.

SEARLES - Every year New Ulm plays host to the Upper Midwest Classic Legion baseball tournament that is comprised of 20 different teams broken down into four groups competing in a round-robin system. The winner of each of the four groups meet in the semifinals to decide who will go on to play in the tournament’s championship. In this year’s tournament, the Marshall Mudcats were grouped with Creighton Prep of Nebraska, the Mankato Americans, the Minneapolis Millers and Wayzata.

The Mudcats got off to a promising start to the tournament on Friday with a win over the Mankato Americans followed by an extra-inning thriller against the Millers, who clawed their way back to a 6-5 win over Marshall after being down for most of the game. Entering Saturday, the Mudcats were still in contention to get out of the group and advance to Sunday’s semifinals.

In the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday at Searles Ballpark, the Mudcats were pitted against Wayzata, who had gone 0-2 to start the tournament. On the mound for the Mudcats was Cody Greve who had a strong outing, but one crooked inning was the difference maker that led Wayzata to the eventual win.

In the top of the first Wayzata began the day with a groundout that was followed by a walk to get a man aboard. Greve responded with a strikeout that ended with a nasty breaking ball on the inside corner of the plate. The next batter advanced the runner to second on a single but that was all of the offense that Wayzata could generate in the top half of the opening inning.

When it was the Mudcats turn to bat, they got an early preview of what was to be the story of the game – a dominant pitching performance from the Wayzata starter who looked to be nearly unhittable all game. After a leadoff groundout, Isaac Schmitt was the only Mudcat to reach base in the inning and the game remained scoreless at the end of the first.

The second inning was when Wayzata broke out the offense. After the first batter hit a bloop single to right field, the baserunner tried to steal second during the next at-bat but was gunned down by Riley Alcorn behind the plate on a beautiful throw to get the first out of the inning. With one out, that’s when Wayzata started to string a rally. An error in the field got a man aboard and was advanced to third on a double. A walk followed that loaded the bases for an eventual two RBI single to notch the game’s first runs. It wouldn’t be their last of the inning, however.

A wild pitch brought in another run to make it 3-0 before a single and a walk loaded the bases, which was followed by another two RBI single to bring the lead to 5-0. A double scored another run but a play at the plate ended the inning, giving Wayzata a 6-0 advantage after two innings.

The score stayed that way through six innings with the Wayzata pitcher and Greve finding themselves locked in a pitcher’s duel. Wayzata later scored once more in the seventh to bring it to the 7-0 final.

It was a tough loss for the Mudcats, but coach Mitch Maxwell knew going into the tournament of what to expect from the talented group of pitchers that this tournament continually offers.

“Offensively, we saw really good pitching today, and that’s why we come to this tournament,” said Maxwell. “Each of the last two years we’ve been here we’ve seen great pitching.”

Greve finished with 6.2 innings while allowing seven runs on eight hits and striking out four. In spite of the rough second inning, Maxwell was impressed by how Greve performed on the mound for the Mudcats.

“Cody had the one inning where they didn’t really hit them hard,” said Maxwell. “He gave up a crooked number (in the second inning) but other than that he threw zeros for five of those six innings.”

The Mudcats now found themselves sitting at a record of 1-2 through three games at the tournament and needed a win to have a shot of playing on Sunday. Unfortunately, the Mudcats had another challenging task ahead of them, facing Creighton Prep, a team that had made it all the way to the Legion World Series last season.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Parker Terfehr got the start for the Mudcats and provided the team with a complete game where he gave up only two runs while striking out one against a well-rounded Creighton ballclub. Maxwell praised Terfehr’s effort on Saturday.

“Parker did a great job against a great ball club in Creighton Prep,” said Maxwell. “He did a nice job of changing speeds on a regular basis.”

Creighton Prep did its damage in the second and fifth innings where they scored a run in each inning en route to their 2-0 victory. Offensively for the Mudcats it was the same story as their previous game with Creighton’s starter having a lights-out performance on the mound.

The Mudcats’ best chance to score came in the fifth inning when Jordan Mernaugh was hit by a pitch that brought the tying run to the plate. Nick Macchio did his part in the next bat when he laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced Mernaugh to second before a wild pitch during Andrew Mulso’s at-bat brought Mernaugh to third base. But the Mudcats couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity, as Marshall fell by a pair of runs.

It was a frustrating afternoon for the Mudcats overall, but Maxwell sees the benefit in playing quality opponents like the ones they faced on Saturday heading into sectional play.

“If you’re going to be able to play well in sections, these are the types of teams you want to play to know what it takes to beat teams like this,” said Maxwell.

With a few days separating the tournament and their next game, the Mudcats will have time to regroup from the tough pair losses before their next game against BOLD on Thursday as they enter into the final stretch of their regular season schedule.