Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Madison Wegner delivers a pitch during their game against Willmar on Thursday. The Tigers fell to the Cardinals 7-1 in their season opener.

MARSHALL – After weeks of indoor practices, cancellations and postponements, the Marshall softball team finally hit the diamond on Thursday evening, as the Tigers opened up its 2018 season at home against the Willmar Cardinals. Marshall was able to tie things up in the fourth, but a grand slam in the sixth inning for the Cardinals pushed them to a 7-1 win over the Tigers.

The first inning was a quick one, with neither team scoring. The Cardinals left one runner on base, while Tigers starting pitcher Madison Wegner picked up her first strikeout of the night. Offensively Marshall finished the inning leaving a runner on second.

The bats started coming alive for the Cardinals in the second inning. With two outs and a runner on base, Willmar found the right pitch and scored the first run of the night on an RBI single, taking an early 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless third inning, Marshall strung together enough offense in the next inning to tie things at 1-1. The successful frame started off with a hit from Morgan Radel, followed later with a double by Shelby Versaevel to put the Tigers in scoring position. Wegner became the key hitter in the inning, connecting on an RBI single that brought Radel in for the first run for the Tigers.

The Cardinals wasted little time staying tied with the Tigers, getting a pair of runs in the top of the fifth thanks to a pair of walks and a single to load the bases. Willmar then would get a two-run single to take a 3-1 lead.

Willmar would continue its offensive efficiency in the top of the sixth, getting a hit batter and two walks to load the bases once again. The Cardinals then broke the score open with a swing of the bat, getting a grand slam to left center to push their lead to 7-1.

The Tigers would get a double from Versaevel in the seventh to start the late rally, but couldn’t capitalize off the leadoff hit, and Marshall would fall by a score of 7-1.

Marshall coach Jack Houseman said it was nice to finally get back out on the field and was pleased with the defensive effort from his team.

“It’s nice to get to out onto the field,” Houseman said. “This is the second time we’re on dirt so I thought our defense played really well for not seeing a lot of ground balls and we made nice plays in the infield so I was pleased with our defense.”

Wegner finished the game with four innings pitched while allowing one run on four hits while striking out five. Karley Polejewski came on in relief to pitch the final three innings, allowing six runs on three hits.

Offensively, Radel led the way for the Tigers, collecting two hits while Versaevel also had a pair of hits and Wegner picked up the lone RBI.

“Morgan did a good job at the plate picking up a couple of hits but we just need to do a little better job of being ready in the box,” Houseman said.

Marshall will be back on the field in Waseca for the first doubleheader of the season tonight. Houseman said their biggest takeaway will be continuing their strong defensive effort and making the close plays.

“We had good defense. Like I said, it was almost flawless other than that one little pop-up there,” Houseman said. “We had two pickoffs at first base from Shelby and Lenei was over at first base on close plays and made those plays and Paige (Andries) and Abby (Wendorff) made plays too. I thought it was going to be a pop fly fest with the wind but I was pleased with our defense.”