Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Peyton Grant swings at a pitch during their game against Minneota on Wednesday. Marshall fell to Minneota 4-1.

MARSHALL — After coming up just short in a 15-inning marathon against Granite Falls on Sunday, the Marshall amateur baseball team looked to bounce back as it continued its homestand against Minneota on Wednesday. Marshall held an early lead, but the Mudhens quickly responded and used a three-run fifth to highlight a 4-1 victory at Legion Field.

Minneota manager Tyson Sonnenburg said they did a good job of staying patient at the plate and being able to capitalize with runners in scoring position.

“Guys just had to sit back and Rusty’s [Swanson] good at mixing pitches and we’ve seen him before and kind of knew what to expect,” Sonnenburg said. “Once we waited a little bit, stayed patient, we got some balls to land with runners in scoring position and then just held on.”

It was tight to start, with neither side able to get on the board in the first two and a half innings. Marshall then struck first in the bottom half of the third, as Swanson reached on an error and Joe Rock and Ryan Schwagel reached to load the bases with no outs before Matt Hmielewski brought in a run on a sacrifice fly to give them a 1-0 lead.

Minneota would have a response, though, with Tate Walerius connecting on a solo home run with two outs in the next half-inning to tie things at 1-1. The Mudhens weren’t done there, as Jake Leighton connected on a one-out double in the fifth before Austin DeVlaeminck lined a single to put a pair of runners aboard. Austin Buysse, Sonnenburg and Danny Hennen then followed with three consecutive RBI singles to put Minneota in front at 4-1.

After a pair of scoreless innings, Marshall had one final at-bat and got a small rally started in the bottom of the ninth with a couple of singles by Justin Greenwood and Jordan Mernaugh. But Minneota reliever AJ Myhre would get three straight strikeouts to get out of the jam and seal the victory.

Schwagel said while he felt they played a clean game overall, they experienced the opposite of Minneota and weren’t able to strike when they had runners on base.

“It felt like we played a pretty clean game, we just didn’t hit quite enough with runners in scoring position to score any runs and they had one inning where they had three and that was the difference in the game,” Schwagel said.

Rock led Marshall with two hits while Hmielewski added a hit and an RBI and Logan Tomasek, Peyton Grant, Greenwood and Mernaugh each had a hit.

Swanson took the loss on the mound, going 4 1/3 innings while allowing four runs on eight hits and struck out two.

Austin Buysse led Minneota with two hits and an RBI while Leighton and Peyton Gillund each added two hits and Sonnenburg, Hennen and Walerius each had a hit and an RBI.

Grady Moorse earned the victory on the mound, going six innings while allowing one run on four hits and struck out five.

Up next

Marshall (6-10) will face Raymond on the road on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. while Minneota (8-5) will face Madison on the road on Friday at 8 p.m.