BELLE PLAINE — After taking down the Webster Sox 3-0 in the first round and Belle Plaine 5-4 in the second round of the 24th annual Belle Plaine tournament, the Marshall A’s took advantage of a two-run single in extra innings against the Minneapolis Mudcats to walk off with their third Tiger Town Classic title by a 7-6 score.

With Sunday’s championship game tied at 5-5 through seven innings, the Mudcats took a one-run lead in the top of the eighth. Tomas Nelson walked to start the inning before scoring on a Caden Christianson single. After Colin Schuetz reached on a fielder’s choice, advanced a runner to third. Yet, Tomasek induced a fielder’s choice to escape the inning with the game still tied. Tomasek pitched four innings of relief, allowing one run on three hits while striking out three batters. 

In the bottom of the eighth, however, Tomasek came up even more clutch. Hunter Wienhoff walked to start the inning and advanced to third on Matt Hmielewski’s single. From there, Ryan Schwagel walked to load the bases with no outs.

The tying run was on third, but Tomasek went for more, singling to center field to score Wienhoff and Hmielewski for the A’s first win at the tournament since 2011. 

Hmielewski also singled in the sixth inning and went on to score on a Tomasek single to tie the game. 

Belle Plaine led 4-1 after the top of the third inning before the Marshall bats started to get to work. Chase Douglas singled in the bottom of the third, stole second and scored on Seth Resnick’s single to center field. In the next inning, Talan Plante singled and Ryan Schwagel reached on an error. From there, Tomasek hit a sacrifice fly to score Plante and Douglas hit an RBI groundout to score Schwagel and tie the game. 

Hunter Wienhoff scored the A’s first run of the game in the second inning. He reached base on an error by the shortstop, advanced to second on an error by the pitcher and scored when Ryan Schwagel reached on an error by the second baseman.

Hmielewski started the game on the mound and pitched four innings. Just two of the five runs he allowed were earned. He also struck out three batters while allowing four hits and a pair of walks. 

Minneapolis scored a pair of first-inning runs on a passed ball.

In Marshall’s 3-0 opening-round win over Webster, the A’s got off to a hot start. Chase Douglas doubled in Marshall’s first at-bat of the game and scored on a passed ball. After a strikeout, Connor Neubeck walked, and advanced to third on Wienhoff’s single and a groundout before also scoring on a passed ball. 

Peyton Grant scored in the third inning after hitting a leadoff single and scoring on Resnick’s RBI single.

Wesley Sarsland pitched the full seven scoreless innings for Marshall, striking out five batters while allowing two hits and three walks.

In the second round, Grant scored twice to help the A’s to a 5-4 win over the Belle Plaine Tigers to reach the finals. Grant doubled in the second inning before scoring on Hmielewski’s sacrifice fly to right field and singled in the third to start a three-run rally for the A’s. After reaching base, Grant advanced to third when Resnick reached on an error. After Schwagel walked to load the bases, Tomasek also walked to force Grant past home plate. Plante hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Resnick and Schwagel scored when Zach Olsen reached on an error to make the score 4-0.

Hunter Wienhoff started game two for the A’s, pitching 6 2/3 innings while allowing four runs — two of which were unearned — on four hits and four walks. He also struck out 11 batters.

Belle Plaine got on the board in the fourth inning after Jared Miller reached on a double, advanced on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly. Similarly, Brody Curtiss doubled in the sixth inning before advancing to third on a passed ball and scoring on a wild pitch.

Belle Plaine did most of its damage in the seventh, however. After Chase Emmers reached on a dropped third strike and advanced to third on Tyler O’Brien’s single, the Tigers had the tying run at the plate. Carsen Ladd then reached on an error with two outs to score Emmers and put O’Brien on third. After Curtiss walked to load the bases, the A’s put Hmielewski on the mound. He hit the first batter he faced to bring Belle Plaine within one before inducing a fly out to end the game.

Marshall (9-1) will host Wabasso for its next game on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.