NEW ULM — The Marshall baseball team dropped its season opener to Mankato West by a score of 9-0. So when MHS, the third seed in the Section 2AAA tournament and No. 10 ranked team in Class AAA squared off against the No. 1 seed in the section and top-ranked team in Class AAA in the Scarlets on Tuesday, Marshall knew it needed to piece together a strong performance with a trip to the section championship game on the line.

Marshall (16-6) did just that, taking an early 3-0 lead before getting a late run to earn a 6-2 victory over Mankato West (20-2) and advance to the Section 2AAA championship game on Friday at 5 p.m. in New Ulm, where it will face the winner of Mankato West and Hutchinson.

Marshall jumped out to an early lead in the first when Chase Douglas got a leadoff triple before Connor Neubeck connected on an RBI single. MHS then added two more runs in the third on an RBI double by Neubeck and an RBI single by Cole Felcyn to take a 3-0 lead.

Mankato West wouldn’t go down without a fight, though, and got on the board in the bottom half of the frame on an RBI groundout. The Scarlets would draw to within a run on a walk in the bottom of the fourth, but Marshall responded with three straight singles from Jacob Hughes, Tyler Maeyaert and Douglas to score a run and make it 5-2. In the seventh, Marshall got singles from Douglas and Josh Baker to plate another run and bring it to the 6-2 final.

Douglas and Neubeck led Marshall with three hits and two RBI each while Baker added three hits and an RBI, Hughes had two hits, Felcyn had a hit and an RBI and Maeyaert had a hit.

Baker earned the victory on the mound, going 3 1/3 innings while allowing two runs on one hit and struck out five. Jack Bly tossed the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on one hit and struck out four.

Section 3A tournament

No. 2N YME 9,

No. 1N MACCRAY 7

MONTEVIDEO — The No. 2N Yellow Medicine East baseball team defeated No. 1N MACCRAY 9-7 on Tuesday in the Section 3A tournament.

Cole Fischer led YME with two hits and an RBI while Tyler Nordaune added a hit and two RBI, Ty Schulte had a hit and an RBI and Cody Dahlager and Nikson Knapper each had a hit.

Bryce Sneller earned the victory in relief, going 1 1/3 innings while allowing two runs on one hit and struck out one. Caleb Jans earned the start, going four innings while allowing four runs on three hits.

YME (17-6) advances to the Section 3A championship game and will face No. 6S Adrian/Ellsworth on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Milroy.