Photo by Brennen Rupp Marshall’s Cody Greve throws out a baserunner during their game against Minneota on Tuesday. Marshall Black won 11-5.

MARSHALL – A five-run fifth inning proved to be the difference Tuesday evening in the Marshall Black and Minneota VFW baseball game at Legion Field. With Marshall holding a slim 5-4 lead to start the bottom of the fifth inning Marshall used timely hitting and took advantage of some Minneota miscues to put together a five-run inning to give themselves a 10-4 lead. Marshall would go on to win the game 11-5 against the visiting Minneota Vultures.

“All year we’ve been struggling with one inning like that where we unravel,” Minneota’s coach J.D. Pesch said. “We need to play cleaner defensively.”

Minneota got the scoring started in the top of the first on a fielding error by Marshall.

With one out in the bottom half of the inning Cody Greve hit a triple. With two outs in the inning Trey Steinbach drove in Greve on an RBI single to tie the game at one. The Tigers added one more in the inning to take a 2-1 lead.

Minneota’s Brant Buysse tied the game at two in the top of the third inning on an RBI single. Marshall answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs to take a 4-2 lead.

In the bottom half of the fourth inning Isaac Schmitt drove in a run on a single to give Marshall a 5-2 lead.

After Minneota trimmed Marshall’s lead to 5-4 in the top of the fifth Marshall Black distanced themselves from the visiting Vultures by scoring five runs in the bottom half of the inning.

“We hit a lot of balls hard today,” Marshall coach Chace Pollock said. “I was really proud of the way we swung the bat. We did the same thing this past weekend. We scored 32 runs in three games and that continued today with another 11-run effort. We are scoring a lot of runs. The guys are having good at-bats.”

Greve finished the game with three hits and scored three runs.

“Cody has done a nice job defensively and offensively,” Pollock said. “He’s grown throughout the summer and continuing to get better. That’s what we want out of everybody.”

Schmitt, Alex Thompson, Nick Macchio and Matt Hmielewski all recorded two hits for Marshall. Schmitt and Jackson Hughes both drove in two runs.

Hmielewski pitched three innings in relief, scattering three hits and recording three strikeouts.

“He threw a lot of strikes,” Pollock said. “He filled up the strike zone and let his defense go to work. He had a good tempo on the mound. He did all the things we want to see.”

The Vultures finished the game with seven hits. Brant Buysse and Teddy Pesch both recorded two hits for Minneota.

“We did pretty well,” Pesch said. “This whole year we’ve been working on being more thoughtful at the plate. We stress being aggressive, but being more thoughtful about it. Marshall has some nice pitchers that are well seasoned. I think we did an okay job at the plate.”

Marshall Black 11, Minneota 5

Minneota 101 020 1 — 5 7 4

Marshall 202 151 x — 11 12 1

HITTING: Minneota (Rolbeicki 1-3; Sam Buysse 1-4; Brant Buysse 2-4; Pesch 2-4; Moon 1-2) Marshall (Greve 3-5; Schmitt 2-4; Thompson 2-3; Steinbach 1-4; Macchio 2-4; Hmielewski 2-4).

PITCHING (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO): Minneota (6-12-11-8-4-3) Marshall (Alcorn 3-3-2-1-2-1; Hmielewski 3-3-2-2-2-3; Greve 1-1-1-1-0-1).