Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Trey Steinbach winds up a pitch during their game against BOLD on Thursday. Marshall Black defeated BOLD 4-3 in five innings.

MARSHALL – Despite only collecting two hits in their game against BOLD on Thursday, the Marshall Junior Legion Black baseball team made them count, as Marshall took the rain-shortened affair 4-3 in five innings.

Marshall Black got things started in the bottom half of the first, as Peyton Grant reached on an error before Brayden Hilgemann drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. After a sacrifice from Kaleb Welvaert put both runners in scoring position and Jordan Mernaugh drew a walk to load the bases, Marshall got on the board on a wild pitch to take an early 1-0 lead. Trey Steinbach then grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring in another run and make it 2-0 in favor of Marshall after an inning of play.

BOLD wasted little time in responding, however, using a single and an error to cut it to 2-1 before tying things up at 2-2 on an RBI single. BOLD then took its first lead of the night in the next inning with an RBI single.

Marshall Black had an answer, though, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame to retake the lead. After two quick outs led off the inning, Mernaugh connected on a single before advancing to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch. Steinbach then drew a walk to put runners on the corners, and Konnor Aufenthie came up with a single of his own to tie things up at 3-3. Zach Olsen then would ground into a fielder’s choice, but Steinbach came across in the process to give Marshall the lead.

After a quick top half of the fourth, the game saw its first rain delay before Marshall could bat in the bottom half of the frame. When the rain and lightning passed, it was decided the two teams would only play five innings. After Marshall couldn’t find a run in the bottom of the fourth, BOLD had one final at-bat to try and tie things up.

BOLD would get a one-out single and the go-ahead run at the plate, but couldn’t capitalize, as Logan Terfehr got a strikeout and Riley Alcorn made a tough catch against the backstop fence on a pop-up for the final out to seal the one-run win for Marshall Black.

Mernaugh and Aufenthie collected the only hits for Marshall while Steinbach, Aufenthie and Olsen had an RBI each.

Steinbach earned the victory on the hill, going 3.1 innings while allowing three runs on eight hits and striking out four.

Marshall Black 4, BOLD 3 (5 innings)

BOLD 021 00 – 3 10 2

Marshall 202 0x – 4 2 1

Hitting: Marshall (Mernaugh 1-1; Steinbach 0-1, RBI; Aufenthie 1-1, RBI; Olsen 0-2, RBI).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Steinbach 3.1-3-1-8-0-4; Terfehr 1.2-0-0-2-0-1).