Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Abby Wendorff (middle) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a walk-off two-run home run during their game against New Ulm on Tuesday. Marshall defeated New Ulm 10-9.

MARSHALL — The last several meetings between the Marshall and New Ulm softball teams have tended to go the Eagles’ way, with New Ulm winning the past 20 matchups dating back as far as the 2008 season. During that stretch, Marshall had scored more than four runs only once, a 10-9 loss on April 14, 2016.

That all changed Tuesday, and Marshall needed every run to upend the Eagles.

Down 9-8, Marshall’s Abby Wendorff provided the late-game heroics with a walk-off, two-run homer to left, propelling MHS to a 10-9 victory and snapping a recent four-game skid in the process.

Marshall coach Jack Houseman said he was pleased to see all of the work they’ve put in pay off and felt they made the necessary plays to come away with the win.

“This is what they’ve been working for their whole life; what they work on in the summer and the spring here, so it was great to see it come together for them,” coach Houseman said. “Olivia [Houseman] pitched a good game, we got our hits and Abby and Leah [Schaefer] knocked the ball out and we made the plays that we had to. It wasn’t perfect, but we’re still working on it.”

Trailing by as many as six runs at one point, New Ulm slowly worked its way back into the ballgame and later found itself down by three going into its final at-bat. After a groundout started the seventh, the Eagles got runners in scoring position before a sacrifice fly made it 8-6. New Ulm wasn’t done there, though, and after a walk, was able to tie things up at 8-8 on a two-run triple before taking the lead back at 9-8 on an RBI double on the ensuing at-bat.

In need of a rally, Marshall got a baserunner aboard when Schaefer connected on a one-out single before Abby Wendorff smacked it over the left-field fence for the game-winning home run.

“The first pitch I said ‘I’m hitting this pitch, I know where it’s going’, but it didn’t go where I expected it,” she said on her final at-bat. “Then I saw the other one coming in on the inside and I thought, ‘Ok, I’m just hitting this one and I hope it goes somewhere.'”

New Ulm jumped out to a quick start in its first at-bat, using a leadoff triple and back-to-back RBI doubles to take a 2-0 lead. Marshall answered right back, though, scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-2 after one. MHS continued its hot start offensively in the next frame, with Olivia Houseman drawing a walk before Lexie Bednarek and Ashleigh Steinbach connected on singles to plate a run. After Randi Wendorff smacked an RBI double, Leah Schaefer blasted a three-run shot to left to push Marshall’s advantage to 8-2.

Coach Houseman said their key on offense was maintaining level swings and finding the open spots in the outfield.

“We were just staying level and hitting line drives,” coach Houseman said. “We’ve been working on that in practice quite a bit because we had been popping up earlier in our at-bats and hadn’t been hitting so it was great to see them drive the ball to the outfield and in those gaps.”

But then the offense went cold for Marshall, who didn’t record a hit for the next four innings. New Ulm, on the other hand, kept battling despite the early deficit and got consecutive base hits to start the third before a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly made it 8-5, which held until the final frame before the late-game dramatics.

Schaefer led Marshall with three hits, including a home run and five RBI while Abby Wendorff had two RBI and a home run, Randi Wendorff and Steinbach each had a hit and an RBI and Bednarek had a hit.

Olivia Houseman earned her first varsity win in the circle, going seven innings while allowing nine runs on 14 hits and struck out three. Coach Houseman said she did a good job of mixing up her pitches and kept New Ulm guessing at the plate and continued to fight throughout the game.

“She kept them guessing and she’s a fighter, so she did a good job of mixing up her pitches and Leah called a good game behind the plate,” coach Houseman said. “She kept us around and they started to get some hits and came back on us, so we’ve still got some stuff to work on in the circle, but I’m very proud of her and that was her first varsity win, so it’s good to get that one under the belt.”

Up next

Marshall (3-5) will continue its homestand this week when it faces Pipestone Area on Thursday in a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. Going into the rest of the week, coach Houseman hopes this win will serve as a confidence boost for their team.

“Just playing with confidence and hopefully this game will increase that and everybody will bat with confidence and play with confidence and we can continue with our season and go get some more wins,” coach Houseman said.

Marshall 10, New Ulm 9

New Ulm 203 000 4 – 9 14 2

Marshall 350 000 2 – 10 9 1

Hitting: Marshall (Schaefer 3H, HR, 5 RBI; A. Wendorff 1H, HR, 2 RBI; R. Wendorff, Steinbach 1H, RBI; Bednarek 1H).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Houseman 7-9-9-14-4-3).