Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall Orange’s Ashton Blomberg delivers a pitch during their game against Minneota on Monday. Marshall fell to Minneota 13-0 in five innings.

MARSHALL — Thanks to a strong start offensively and a combined no-hitter from Thor Fischer and Tyler Gronke, the Minneota Legion baseball team earned a 13-0 victory in five innings against Marshall 15U Orange on Monday at Legion Field.

Minneota coach Keven Larson said they were grateful for Marshall stepping in to host a game for them to start their season after having previous games postponed.

“We had quite a few guys get base hits, but it was just nice to get out and play a game and we appreciate having Marshall step up and play,” Larson said. “This week, we had two games postponed because the other teams that were supposed to play still were in section playoffs for high school so we’re just grateful for the opportunity to be able to come over and play.”

Minneota jumped out to an early lead, getting a leadoff walk by Ben Skorczewski before an RBI single by Jonah Gruenes made it 1-0. The Vultures weren’t done there, later capitalizing on a wild pitch and an error to score two more runs before an RBI single by Fischer pushed their advantage to 4-0 after a half-inning of play.

Minneota continued its hot start on offense, getting on the board in each of the next few innings. In the second, Skorczewski reached on an error before scoring on an RBI single by Gruenes. After AJ Myhre drew a walk, Carter Schuelke reached on an error to score another run and make it 6-0. The third inning saw the Vultures cross the plate four times, with Fischer and Gronke reaching on back-to-back singles before a wild pitch and an error on a pickoff brought in two runs. An RBI groundout by Josh Schuelke and an RBI single from Carter Schuelke pushed Minneota’s lead to 10-0. In the fourth, a single by Gronke, RBI doubles from Skorczewski and Gruenes and an RBI single by Myhre then brought it to the 13-0 final.

Ashton Blomberg took the loss on the mound, going two innings while allowing eight runs on six hits and struck out three.

Despite not recording a hit on the game, Marshall Orange had a few opportunities to get on the board and got baserunners to lead off the inning in four of the five innings, but weren’t able to capitalize. Marshall 15U Orange co-coach Brad Bahlmann said even though they were playing against a more experienced team, he felt they just didn’t compete and weren’t very focused.

“Effort-wise we were playing up a level, that was their Legion team, but I thought we didn’t compete very well,” Bahlmann said. “I thought we weren’t focused, it was hot out, I thought our minds were somewhere else; they’re a lot better than we are, but I don’t think we played as well as we could have and showed.”

Gruenes led Minneota with three hits and three RBI while Gronke added three hits and Fischer, Skorczewski and Myhre each had two hits and an RBI.

Gronke earned the victory in relief, going three innings while striking out one. Fischer earned the start, going two innings and struck out three.

Larson said the key for both Fischer and Gronke on the mound was consistently attacking the zone and getting as much experience as they could to start the season.

“Just trying to consistently throw strikes,” Larson said. “We hadn’t thrown for a little more than a week, so we just needed to get back on the mound and we needed to get Tyler some innings for the season since he’ll be a returner for next year. It was good to get both Thor and Tyler a feel for it and Marshall had some solid at-bats but we turned a couple of double plays which was big and got ourselves out of a couple of innings.”

Up next

Marshall 15U Orange (1-3-1) will face Pipestone at home on Thursday at 6 p.m. Going into their next game, Bahlmann said they need to work on their baserunning and taking advantage of that at the plate.

“We’ve got to work on baserunning and fine-tune our pitching,” Bahlmann said. “We also need to have timely at-bats; we had runners on first and second and had a lot of mistakes on the basepaths and didn’t move guys over, so we’ve got a lot to work on before Thursday.”

Minneota (1-0) will face Adrian on the road on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Going into their next game, Larson said they need to work on having more quality at-bats and maintaining their momentum.

“Just having solid at-bats,” Larson said. “We didn’t swing at a lot of pitches that we shouldn’t have and then just putting the ball in play and having good things happen, so hopefully we can keep rolling with that.”

Minneota 13,

Marshall 15U Orange 0 (5 innings)

Minneota 424 30 – 13 14 0

Marshall 15U 000 00 – 0 0 6

Hitting: Marshall (none); Minneota (Skorczewski 2-3, RBI; J. Schuelke, RBI; Gruenes 3-3, 3 RBI; Myhre 2-3, RBI; C. Schuelke 1-4, RBI; Panka 1-4; Fischer 2-2, RBI; Gronke 3-4).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Blomberg 2-8-4-6-2-3; Cowden 3-5-5-8-3-2); Minneota (Fischer 2-0-0-0-1-3; Gronke 3-0-0-0-3-1).