Photo courtesy of Travis Rosenau/New Ulm Journal Members of the Marshall baseball team celebrate after defeating Mankato West in the Section 2AAA championship game on Friday in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — It was not that Mankato West had trouble getting runners on base in its Section 2AAA championship game against Marshall Friday night in New Ulm.

It was that the Tigers’ pitchers did not let them score.

Marshall left-hander Charlie Jacobson stranded five Scarlet runners — all five of them in scoring position — and reliever Jack Bly stranded three more, including the game-tying runner at second base in the top of the seventh as the Marshall Tigers punched their ticket to the Minnesota State High School Baseball Tournament with a 2-1 win over the Scarlets at Johnson Park.

Jacobson, a junior, earned the win for the Tigers, now 17-6. He went six innings and allowed no runs on three hits while fanning two.

Bly took over for Jacobson with two runners on and no outs in that sixth inning and held West off of the board.

Zander Dittbenner took the loss for Mankato West, who saw its season end with a 21-3 record. Dittbenner struck out 11 and allowed five hits.

Cole Felcyn had two of the five Tiger hits and had an RBI. Bly also drove in a run.

Marshall will now play in the Class AAA tournament next Tuesday. Seedings and pairings have yet to be determined.

“We told our kids before the game that they are going to have to earn everything,” Marshall head coach Chace Pollock said. “We challenged them and made them do that.”

Marshall got to the left-handed Dittbenner for a run in the bottom of the third. A.J. Toulouse coaxed a lead-off walk. Connor Neubeck reached on a two-out free pass before Felyn singled to right field and Toulouse just beat the throw home.

That lead held up despite the Scarlets mounting scoring threats.

West left runners on second and third in both the third and fourth innings and left the bases loaded in the sixth with one out but failed to score off of Jacobson or Bly.

“We did a great job of pitching with runners on base,” Pollock said. “That is a credit to our guys.”

Marshall added an important run in the bottom of the sixth when Jacobson fanned but reached base on a passed ball. He took second on another passed ball and then raced home when Bly helped his own cause with a single to left.

West cut the lead to 2-1 before Bly caught a slow liner off of the bat of Jacob Maes to end the game.

Pollock said that his team took it day by day in the section.

“We won the section as a four-seed two years ago and we won it as a two-seed two years before that,” he said. “It does not matter where you are at, it is about peaking at the right time.”