Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Karson Rowe winds up a pitch during their game against Edgerton on Wednesday. The Tigers defeated the Dutchmen 11-1 in six innings.

MARSHALL — Before the Marshall Black 14U baseball team broke out the bats, they had to silence the ones of their opponents first. Led by a dominant combined pitching effort by Karson Rowe and Ashtin Blomburg, the Tigers quieted Edgerton’s offense, holding the Dutchmen to just two hits and one run in a 11-1 victory in six innings Wednesday night at Legion Field.

Marshall 14U co-coach Brady Lanoue said despite it only being their second game of the season, he was pleased with the way they performed both in the field and at the plate.

“Both sides were very clean and it’s kind of hard to remember that this is only their second game of the year,” Lanoue said. “We haven’t had very good luck getting games in, but the games we have gotten in, the pitchers have been filling up the zone; I think we only had a couple of walks there and had only about three strikeouts on the hitting end, so we were putting the ball in play and doing some good things there.”

Rowe earned the victory on the mound, tossing the first 4 2/3 innings while only allowing one run on two hits and struck out 11 Dutchmen batters. Blomburg came on in relief, going the final 1 1/3 innings while giving up no runs and no hits while striking out one.

Lanoue said the main importance they are stressing to their pitchers is just filling the strike zone and if a ball is put in play, have the defense be able to make the play to back them up.

“The biggest thing right now is filling up the strike zone and putting the ball in play,” Lanoue said. “We know we have good guys behind them playing defense and that’s kind of the big thing we stress is getting it in the zone and if they put it in play, we have a good enough defense to take care of it. That’s what they are doing, just filling up the strike zone and we’ve had two good wins to start.”

While the two Marshall pitchers were in a groove, the offense tried to provide some run support, but faced adversity early. Edgerton jumped out to a quick lead, using a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases before a hit batter brought in a run for the Dutchmen. Marshall answered right back, though, as Talan Plante connected on a double before Coby Brownlee smacked a ball over the centerfielder’s head for an RBI triple to tie things at 1-1 after one. 

After a scoreless second, Marshall picked up the scoring again in the third. Brayden Louwagie led things off by getting hit by a pitch before Plante lined a single and Brownlee plated a run with an RBI groundout to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Marshall kept things going in the fourth by taking advantage of a couple of Edgerton errors and a wild pitch to add another run and make it 3-1.

Marshall’s productive night at the plate wasn’t done there, as Louwagie led off the fifth with a single and Preston Grosklags was hit by a pitch before Plante ripped a double in the left-center gap to score both runs and push the advantage to 5-1. After Brownlee and Drew Parsons were both hit by a pitch, Marshall added a pair of runs on a wild pitch and a balk to make it 7-1.

The Tigers then loaded the bases in the sixth before a wild pitch and a hit batter brought in two more runs to extend the lead to 9-1. Rowe kept the offense rolling by reaching on an infield single to plate a run before Parsons got aboard with a walk to score another. A wild pitch on the ensuing at-bat brought in the final run and secured the victory for Marshall.

Plante led the way for Marshall with three hits and two RBI while Louwagie and Jude Knudson each added two hits. Rowe, Carter Kepler and Brownlee also had a hit apiece, with Rowe and Brownlee combining for three RBI.

Lanoue said offensively, their key was staying disciplined at the plate and putting the ball in play and making the defense work to get them out.

“Putting the ball in play was a big thing. I think a lot of people got in the hit column, but when you put the ball in play, it doesn’t matter where it’s at, it’s always a good thing to do that and make the defense work for their outs vs. striking out and not making them work for it,” Lanoue said. “I think we’ve done a pretty nice job over the first two games with putting the ball in play and making them get us out vs. us getting ourselves out.”

Up next

Marshall 14U will play again this weekend. Lanoue said they still need to clean up a couple of things but added that will come with more practices and games in the next couple of weeks.

“We still need to clean up some stuff, especially on the basepaths, but that’s just going to come with more game time and more practice,” Lanoue said. “For this only being their second game and we’ve only had a couple of weeks of team practices, they’re looking really good right now and they’re fun to coach and fun to be around and hopefully we can keep it going.”