Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Jordan Mernaugh is surrounded by his teammates after hitting a walk-off single to lift the Mudcats to a thrilling 1-0 victory over BOLD on Thursday.

MARSHALL – The Marshall and BOLD Legion baseball teams kept things close during their game on Thursday. So close that it nearly didn’t have a run scored. That’s when Jordan Mernaugh decided to change things up.

With the game scoreless and runners on second and third with one out, Mernaugh came through with a line-drive single to left-center, bringing in the game-winning RBI as Marshall won in walk-off fashion 1-0 in six innings.

Mernaugh said when his teammates were able to get on base and put him in a position to end it, he jumped at the opportunity.

“When Kaleb (Welvaert) and Parker (Terfehr) got on, I told Andrew Mulso before I went up to bat, ‘I want this. I want to walk it off’,” Mernaugh said. “I just worked the count, saw as many pitches as I could and my thought process was to just have fun and put it in the gap.”

It was the makings of a tight game right from the start, as both Isaac Schmitt and BOLD’s starter were locked in a pitcher’s duel the entire night. BOLD reached on an error with one out in the top of the first before getting a sacrifice and a walk to put a pair of runners on base, but couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. Marshall’s first at-bat saw an infield single from Jackson Hughes, but the Mudcats couldn’t capitalize on their chance.

BOLD led off the top of the second with a couple of singles as well as a sacrifice fly to put runners on the corners, but Schmitt got out of the frame and maintained the scoreless start.

Marshall had its best chance of the evening thus far in the bottom half of the inning, as Parker Terfehr drew a walk, Mernaugh reached on an error and Nick Macchio was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs, but the Mudcats couldn’t take advantage and the game remained scoreless through two.

After a quick third and fourth inning, with just one hit being recorded in the two frames, BOLD had a chance to get on the scoreboard with a hit batter and a walk, but Schmitt got out of another jam by coaxing a popout to preserve the scoreless streak.

The Mudcats got back on the basepaths in the bottom half of the fifth, when Alex Thompson connected on a two-out single to left and stole second before Hughes drew a walk. But a hard-hit ball to the right side would find the glove of the second baseman, who completed the groundout play to keep things scoreless through five innings of play.

After BOLD went down in the top of the sixth, Marshall had one final chance to get on the scoreboard and end the game. After a flyout started things off, Welvaert drew a walk before Terfehr drew a walk of his own to put runners on first and second. Both Marshall baserunners would then advance on a wild pitch, setting the stage for Mernaugh’s late-game dramatics.

Mernaugh finished with a 1 for 3 day at the plate with the lone RBI while Schmitt, Hughes and Thompson all added a base hit.

Schmitt finished the complete-game outing with six innings pitched while allowing no runs on just two hits and struck out four.

Marshall coach Mitch Maxwell said Isaac did a great job in his outing and was able to challenge and go after hitters throughout the night.

“First of all, Isaac did a great job on the mound against a good team. BOLD’s been solid for a while now, so I thought he did a really nice job with the hitters, challenging them at times with his fastball,” Maxwell said. “So credit to him and credit as well to their (BOLD’s) kid; he threw a great ballgame. He challenged us and threw a little changeup that kept us off just enough. We were patient enough to stay with things; we played really well defensively and gave ourselves a chance.”

Maxwell added that in close-game situations, all it takes is one guy to create a spark. He felt they were able to do that late and have done a good job of that all summer.

“We talked about in a game like this, all it takes is a guy to get us going so I thought we worked in a couple of really nice at-bats towards the end of the game and got helped out with the passed ball,” Maxwell said. “Then Jordan did a nice job on a 3-2 count of lacing a ball to left-center. We’ve played that way a lot this summer where it’s been a team effort up and down the lineup. It’s nice to be able to come out with a win.”

Marshall (8-5) will play in the Princeton tournament on July 20-22. Maxwell said their biggest takeaway is to continue their ability to stay patient and not waver too far emotionally throughout the course of a game as they head to the final games of the regular season.

“This game is a funny game; you really never know what’s going to happen, and give credit to these guys for having patience like that,” Maxwell said. “It can be easy to get emotionally too high or too low, but I think this group does a nice job of being patient at the plate, during the course of a game and it paid off (tonight).”

Marshall 1, BOLD 0 (6 innings)

BOLD 000 000 – 0 2 1

Marshall 000 001 – 1 4 1

Hitting: Marshall (Thompson 1-3; Hughes 1-2; Schmitt 1-3; Mernaugh 1-3, RBI).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Schmitt 6-0-0-2-4-4).