Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Parker Schmitt delivers a pitch during their game against Albany on Friday. Marshall defeated Albany 4-3.

MARSHALL — After spending its first week of the season on the road, the Marshall Legion baseball team came back home on Friday for the first day of its Wood Bat Classic tournament. Looking to maintain the momentum of a hard-fought second-place finish from the Watertown tournament, Marshall battled through a back-and-forth game against Albany and held off a late rally to earn a 4-3 victory at Legion Field.

Marshall coach Mitch Maxwell said they did a good job of being focused from the start and playing as a group and bringing a lot of energy.

“Coming into the tournament we knew we were going to be short a couple of guys and you don’t know how guys are going to react when that happens. We talked early in the season that we needed to have a little more energy, we needed to be more focused on the game in front of us and then be able to pick up some of the little intricacies of the game to be able to play better,” Maxwell said. “I thought [tonight] what I was most proud of with our team was they were in it from the opening pitch and they played really well as a team. I think that was the key to us doing well, just playing as a team, being focused in and bringing that energy to the dugout to be able to pick up on those things.”

Marshall jumped out to a quick start, as Tyler Maeyaert connected on a leadoff single before advancing to third on a pair of wild pitches and scoring on an RBI single by Ezra Maurice to make it 1-0. Marshall then got a ground-rule double from Talan Plante before Ashton Rowe brought in a run on a sacrifice fly to push their lead to 2-0 after two.

After a scoreless third, Albany battled back in the top of the fourth, using three straight base hits before a fielder’s choice plated two runs to tie things up at 2-2. Marshall had a response, though, with Gavin Peterson smacking a single before Maeyaert lined an RBI single to give Marshall the lead at 3-2 after four.

Neither team found scoring in the fifth, but Marshall got back on the board in the sixth, with Plante connecting on a leadoff single before Rowe got an RBI single to make it 4-2.

Albany wouldn’t go down without a fight, however, and got a single to lead off the seventh before a walk and an RBI ground-rule double drew the deficit to one at 4-3. A walk would then load the bases with one out, but Braeden Myhre would catch a laser line drive before racing to get the runner out at third for a game-winning, unassisted double play to seal the victory for Marshall.

Maeyaert led Marshall with two hits and an RBI while Plante added two hits and Maurice and Rowe each had a hit and combined for three RBIs.

Parker Schmitt earned the victory on the mound, going 6 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and struck out seven. Maxwell said Schmitt has done a good job of focusing in where he wants to throw and keeping the ball low in the strike zone in his last couple of starts.

“The last two starts he’s had have been really solid. We talked about how he was getting a little flat and we weren’t getting good downward plane on our fastball in that first outing and maybe a little bit earlier on,” Maxwell said. “We talked about our eye location, where we want the pitch to go because we’re living high, so we didn’t have a good downward plane, we were flat and then we were living at about the belt. He’s done a nice job of being able to focus in on a good target and then with that be able to get on top of the baseball and throw low strikes and keep himself out of trouble that way.”

Up next

Marshall (4-3) will continue tournament play today, facing Redfield (S.D.) at 9 a.m. before taking on Hutchinson at 3:30 p.m. Going into their next matchups, Maxwell said they just need to keep competing as a team and staying focused on every play.

“We have to continue to compete. Nothing that we’re going to get is going to come easy,” Maxwell said. “I think coach [Chace] Pollock has done a nice job of being able to throw together a good tournament, so we’ve got to come ready to play for each one and do what we did here which is be focused on every pitch and play together as a team.”

Marshall 4, Albany 3

Albany 000 200 1 – 3 7 2

Marshall 110 101 X – 4 8 2

Hitting: Marshall (Maeyaert 2-4, RBI; Brownlee 1-4; Maurice 1-2, RBI; Plante 2-3; Peterson 1-1; Rowe 1-2, 2 RBI).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Schmitt 6.1-3-3-6-1-7; Rowe 0.2-0-0-1-1).