“It was a great day at the ballpark. We pitched the ball really well and played really good defense. It was just a good collective effort,” Marshall head coach Chace Pollock said. “That’s how you win ball games, between your pitching and your defense.”

Pieper pitched a complete game in the first matchup, and impressively allowed just one hit that came in Belle Plaine’s final at-bat appearance in the top of the seventh. JR Vierstraete led the team offensively in game 1, going 2 for 2 at the plate with one RBI and one run.

“He [Pieper] was all over the strike zone. He had all of his pitches working, and had good pace, like he got the ball and went. It was a fun game to watch him play. It’s his first varsity start, so that was awesome,” Pollock said of Pieper’s pitching.

Jackson Sirovy went 3 for 3 at the plate in the second game, along with three RBIs and a run. Kraft had a game-high five RBIs to pair with his homer, while Vierstraete again went 2 for 2 with a trio of RBIs and accounted for two runs.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's Noah Pieper throws a pitch in the first game of a doubleheader against Belle Plaine on Saturday at Legion Field. Pieper threw 15 strikeouts in the win.

Andrew Lee got the win on the mound in game 2, pitching the first three innings with five strikeouts and no walks. He allowed two hits. Clayton Jones relieved the final two frames, throwing two strikeouts with one walk with three hits.

“Our defense is playing really good right now. The past couple games, we’ve had at least two double plays every single game,” Kraft said. “We’re just playing really good, and playing as a team. Playing as a team is the biggest part.”

Marshall moves to a 4-0 start to the season, and will next travel to St. Peter on Tuesday with a 5:30 p.m. first pitch.

“We’re off to a great start, and we’re just going to try to keep it going into next week,” Pollock said. “We’ll play on Tuesday against St. Peter, and then up in the cities, we’ll go to Andover on Friday. It’ll be a tough week for us, but we’ll be ready.”

GAME 1

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's JR Vierstraete (left) celebrates to the dugout after hitting a three-run RBI double in the second game of a doubleheader against Belle Plaine on Saturday at Legion Field.

Marshall 6, Belle Plaine 0

Pieper got straight to work tossing five strikeouts through his first two innings to continue bringing Marshall back to the plate quickly.

“We played amazing. The pitchers on the mound played really good. Noah Pieper pitched a heck of a game. Just one hit away from a no-hiiter, that was really good,” Kraft said.

Marshall scored all of its six runs in a third-inning rally, which was enough to hold off Belle Plaine the rest of the way.

Hitting was contagious as Marshall continued to run the bases, sparked with a successful bunt from Lee to get on first.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's Andrew Stelter (16) runs home in the first of a doubleheader against Belle Plaine on Saturday at Legion Field.

“The [first] game, we scored all our runs in the third inning again, which we did yesterday [Friday against Moorhead] as well … It was one of those things where we had all our hits in one inning, and all our runs in one inning,” Pollock said. “Then the second game, we just hit the ball up and down, every inning we scored. The kids are feeling more comfortable hitting, and that’s fun to see.”

Andrew Stelter was hit by a pitch to take base and move Lee to second, just as Eli Weedman stepped up and hit an infield single to get all bases occupied.

Lee was the first to score after Chase Alcorn hit a sacrifice fly and allowed Lee enough time to tag and charge home.

Running home from second base, Stelter scored following a Trae Bailey RBI single and Weedman followed close behind, scoring on a passed ball from third for a Marshall 3-0 lead.

Vierstraete hit an RBI single on a grounder to eventually run in Bailey, as Vierstraete found himself home shortly after with a Levi Maeyaert hard line-drive single out to center field.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's Tyler Kraft catches a ball at third base on a stolen-base attempt in a doubleheader against Belle Plaine on Saturday at Legion Field.

Marshall again got the bases loaded with two outs following a pair of walks, along with Eli Alcorn pinch running for Maeyaert.

Eli Alcorn was the final run of Marshall’s rally, who was given home after Belle Plaine tossed another walk to advance all runners for the 6-0 lead, ultimately becoming the final score.

Marshall put the rest of the game away behind its competitive defense to pair along with Pieper’s tenacious pitching, continuing to not allow Belle Plaine to get very many good looks at the plate.

BOX SCORE

HITTING

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's Eli Alcorn (1) scores home in the second of a doubleheader against Belle Plaine on Saturday at Legion Field.

A. Stelter: 0-1, R; Eli Weedman: 0-3, R; C. Alcorn: 0-2, RBI; T. Bailey: 1-3, R, RBI; J, Vierstraete: 2-2, R, RBI, BB; L. Maeyaert: 1-2, RBI; E. Alcorn: 0-1, R; N. Pieper: 0-2, BB; Ethan Weedman: 0-2, BB; A. Lee: 1-1, R, RBI, BB.

PITCHING

N. Pieper: 7 IP, 15 SO 1 H, 1 BB.

GAME 2

Marshall 18, Belle Plaine 0 (5 inn.)

Kraft’s two-run homer in the top of the third inning highlighted Marshall’s game 2 victory. Sirovy was hit by a pitch to get on base, as Kraft sent the ball over the left field fence for the two runs, and was welcomed by his dugout at home plate.

The homer also put Marshall into mercy-rule territory with a 10-0 lead.

“I didn’t feel it [the ball] off the bat, it just felt perfect. It was in a perfect spot,” Kraft said of his homerun. “I just saw the high fastball coming, so I took a swing at it, and it just went over.”

Kraft also credited his team’s hitting through both games, citing that Marshall’s offensive performance had the snowball effect between everyone.

Marshall got the bats going promptly in the first inning, scoring five runs on two hits in its first plate appearance. A two-run RBI from both Maeyaert and Sirovy sparked the momentum, accounting for four of the runs.

Eli Alcorn initially hit an RBI infield single to score Stelter for the game’s first run. Stelter got on base with an infield hit, reaching first on a Belle Plaine throwing error and got into scoring position on third with a stolen base and passed ball.

Marshall got the bases loaded between a Vierstraete walk, Eli Alcorn’s hit and an Eli Weedman walk.

Maeyaert and Sirovy hit their two-run RBIs back-to-back to run everyone home and extend Marshall’s early lead to 5-0. Maeyaert’s hit was a double to right field, and Sirovy got his ball to drop in the gap on a fly-ball single between first base and right field.

After completing three quick outs, Marshall tacked on another trio of runs in the top of the second for an 8-0 edge with the help of a three-run RBI double from Vierstraete, who sent the ball to deep center field.

Marshall again had the bases loaded to allow Vierstraete to send everyone home, occupied by Stelter, Eli Weedman and Bailey.

Much like the first game, Marshall held off Belle Plaine through the final innings, chipping in some more runs, to limit the opportunity of a comeback in five innings to secure the Saturday sweep.

Marshall’s defense behind the pitcher also shined, including a double play in the bottom of the fourth when Belle Plaine had bases loaded. Ethan Boeck fielded a grounder at second base and flipped the ball over to Stelter for the force out at two, and threw to Vierstraete at first to complete the play.

“I’ve been telling the kids we’ve really been impressed with them defensively. That’s where it matters. You win games on defense, and [I’m] proud of the way that we started the season,” Pollock said.

BOX SCORE

HITTING

A. Stelter: 1-3, R; N. Frazee: 1-1, R, 2 RBI; C. Alcorn: 1-3, RBI, BB; Eli Weedman: 1-1, 2 R, BB; E. Boeck: 0-2, BB; T. Bailey: 0-1, R, BB; K. Coequyt: 1-2, R, BB; E. Alcorn: 0-2, 2 R, RBI; K. Frana: 2-3, R; J. Vierstraete: 2-2, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB; N. Pieper: 0-2, R; L. Maeyaert: 1-2, R, 2 RBI; Ethan Weedman: 1-1, 2 R, BB; J. Sirovy: 3-3, R, 3 RBI; T. Kraft: 1-3, 2 R, 5 RBI, BB.

PITCHING

A. Lee: 3 IP, 5 SO, 2 H. C. Jones: 2 IP, 2 SO, 3 H, BB.