Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s AJ Toulouse catches a fly ball during their game against Bird Island on Friday. Marshall fell to Bird Island 7-1.

MARSHALL — After a high-scoring battle that saw their team score 15 runs on Wednesday, the Marshall amateur baseball team hoped to provide some pre-Fourth of July offensive fireworks on Friday against Bird Island. Instead, Marshall saw its offense go cold, only recording one run en route to a 7-1 loss at Legion Field.

Marshall manager Ryan Schwagel credited Bird Island for keeping them off balance at the plate but felt they still played solid despite the final outcome.

“We played pretty good,” Schwagel said. “We only had one error on the board and hats off to Bird Island, their pitcher threw a ton of strikes and kept us off balance and they’re a really good team.”

Bird Island jumped out to a quick start, using a double, a single and a two-run double to take a 2-0 lead after one. Marshall would get on the board an inning later, as Logan Tomasek connected on a leadoff single before Andrew Cowden got an RBI single to draw the deficit to 2-1. Bird Island answered in the ensuing at-bat, though, extending its lead to 3-1 after three on a pair of doubles.

After a couple of scoreless innings, Bird Island got back on the board in the top of the sixth, using a pair of singles and fielder’s choices to plate two runs and make it 5-1. Neither team found scoring in the seventh, but Bird Island got a couple of runs across in the top of the eighth on a double to bring it to the 7-1 final.

Cowden led Marshall with a hit and an RBI while Tomasek, Coby Brownlee and Peyton Grant each had a hit.

Tomasek took the loss on the mound, going eight innings while allowing seven runs on 10 hits and struck out seven.

Up next

Marshall (5-7) will face Sacred Heart at home on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Going into their next matchups, Schwagel said they just need to get the offense going again and continue to throw strikes on the mound.

“Just have to get the bats hot again,” Schwagel said. “We scored a lot of runs the last few games and this one they threw a good pitcher and we just didn’t hit enough. If we continue to throw strikes and hit a little bit better, we’re in every ballgame.”

Bird Island 7, Marshall 1

Bird Island 201 002 020 – 7 10 1

Marshall    010 000 000 – 1 4 0

Hitting: Marshall (Cowden 1H, RBI; Tomasek, Brownlee, Grant 1H).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Marshall (Tomasek 8-7-7-10-3-7; Bouwman 1-0-0-0-1-1).