Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Jacob Eben slides into third base during their game against Tracy on Monday.

MARSHALL — Marshall Black 17U coach Mitchell Maxwell said they’ve been focusing on getting out to an early lead in their games recently. His team responded in a big way, pounding 11 hits to score 12 runs as Marshall took down Tracy 12-0 in five innings on Monday at Legion Field.

“Our concern in the first couple of games has been falling behind early and always having to work from a deficit, so we’ve talked about coming to the ballpark with the right attitude and here specifically trying to flip the script,” Maxwell said. “I think the guys responded well to that challenge.”

Equally as impressive as Marshall’s offensive performance was the outing for starter Mitchell Bouwman. Bouwman tossed a complete-game no-hitter, going all five innings while striking out 10.

Bouwman said the key during his start was attacking the zone with fastballs and mixing in a few curveballs as well and just keeping the hitters off-balance.

“I was throwing just straight fastballs and a couple of curveballs to start out,” Bouwman said. “Nothing really needed to break so I just had to get it past them.”

Bouwman’s strong performance started right from the first pitch, as he quickly sent Tracy down in order with three straight strikeouts to begin the game. Marshall’s offense then broke out the bats in the home half of the frame, as Keaton Maertens and Jacob Eben drew walks before Connor Neubeck connected on an RBI double to make it 1-0. After a sacrifice fly by Brock Schultz, Bouwman brought in another run with an RBI double of his own to make it 3-0. Marshall’s hot start wasn’t done there, as Kadam Brinkman smacked a single on the ensuing at-bat to plate two more runs and push Marshall’s lead to 5-0. Marshall then loaded the bases before Eben reached on an infield single to score another run and make it 6-0 after one inning.

Neither side found scoring in the next frame, but Marshall quickly regained its offensive production in the third. Seth Radtke got things started with a one-out single before back-to-back walks by Maertens and Eben loaded the bases. Neubeck then stepped up and wasted little time at the plate, lining a shot to center for a bases-clearing triple that made it 9-0. Consecutive hits by Schultz, Zach Allen and Preston Hoflock and a run on a double play would later extend Marshall’s lead to 12-0.

Despite the deficit, Tracy continued to battle and had a chance to get on the board in the top half of the fourth. Maddox Viessman and Nick Schmitt would get hit by pitches while Travis Willhite reached on an error to load the bases, but Bouwman was able to escape the jam by getting a popout to end the frame.

Bouwman then went back out in the fifth and kept Tracy from scoring, including getting a pair of strikeouts to help seal the shutout victory for Marshall.

Tracy coach Bill Tauer said they’re a young team and are continuing to grow as a group with each game and credited Marshall for taking advantage of their mistakes right away.

“Marshall Black is a good team and we’re a little inexperienced but our goal is to come out and get our kids to learn how to battle and fight through adversity. In the two innings that they scored, there were a couple of plays where we had to make our pitchers throw extra pitches and give them extra outs and we can’t do that,” Tauer said. “To their credit, they took advantage of that and when you do those kind of things and walk some kids and then it just snowballs. Those two innings they hit the ball well and made up for some of our mistakes and that was the name of the game. We have to also hit the ball better, we didn’t put any pressure on them defensively, but we’ll keep working at it and get better.”

Neubeck led the way for Marshall with a 2 for 3 day at the plate with four RBI while Brinkman added a pair of hits and two RBI and Schultz had a hit and two RBI.

Marshall will host Brookings (S.D.) today at 6 p.m. Maxwell said they know it’ll be a different type of game, so they need to continue to be ready to go right from the start.

“We’ve got Brookings coming today and they’ll be a good club,” Maxwell said. “It’ll be a different type of ballgame, so we need to continue to take care of ourselves and have that attitude that we’re going to come out and challenge the other team.”