Photo by Chris Drummond: Marshall pitcher Morgan Bjella throws a pitch during her perfect game against Worthington, leading the Tigers to a 15-0 home win over the Trojans Tuesday afternoon.

MARSHALL — The Marshall Tigers softball team dominated the Worthington Trojans 15-0 in four innings behind Morgan Bjella’s perfect game and solid hitting. It was the first perfect game in the program’s history and she did it in a long-awaited home opener on Tuesday evening.

“I couldn’t do any of it without my team talking to me,” Bjella said. “Saying things like a good job and keeping me positive. I mean it’s a cool thing but I couldn’t accomplish this without my team behind me.”

The Tigers started off scoring five runs in the first inning, setting the tone for the game. Brielle Riess had a lead-off single and was then followed up with two RBI singles from Lauren Wherry and Randi Wendorff making it a 5-0 lead at the end of the 1st inning.

That is all Bjella would need to handle the Trojans.

Bjella faced 12 batters and struck out eight of them in the victory.

“I had my riseball working for me,” Bjella said. “I also had my changeup working as well. It gave me a lot of confidence knowing that we were up early in the game.”

Marshall head coach John Houseman continued talking about his starting pitcher in today’s game and how good it was to see other players get into the game.

“Bjella did good,” Houseman said. “Her change-up was working today and that’s what we like to see. That’s one of her tougher pitches. She got us in the dugout and we were able to get to our bats. It is good to see players get in a bat or hit in the game at the varsity level. It is a tough situation because you’re up runs but you also have to try to work them into the game and today we were able to do that.”

The second inning for the Tigers saw them return to the top of the batting order. This is when the Trojans started to erratically throw the ball away and walk batters. The Tigers took advantage of the mistakes the Trojans made and Wherry had another two-RBI double in the inning to extend the lead to 9-0.

The third inning was more offense from the Tigers with Halla Casavan going 2-2 with two RBIs and three runs. Olivia Houseman had a base hit and two RBIs in the contest. Wherry finished with a game-high four RBIs and also had two hits.

Marshall started to rotate in their bench players and Payton Swanson got a base hit along with Harley Beek who had the game-sealing RBI single in a 15-0 four-inning game win.

Houseman spoke on how good it felt to get the win and play to get softball season started.

“Yes it is awesome to be back out here and we’re thankful the city got the fields ready for us,” Houseman said. “We got it started, then had to take a break because of the rain, cold weather. Now we are back getting it started and hope to finish strong.”

The Marshall Tigers are in the midst of a home stretch where they host conference opponent St. Peter on a doubleheader on Thursday with the first game at 4:30 p.m. and the second game at 6:30 p.m.

They will conclude the week hosting Morris Area High School Friday at 4:30 p.m.