Photo by Jake McNeill The Marshall dugout rushes out onto the field to shower Logan Tomasek in water bottles following his game-winning hit against Raymond at American Legion Field on Friday night.

MARSHALL — The game was on the line when Logan Tomasek stepped up to the plate for the Marshall A’s in the bottom of the ninth inning in their game against Raymond Friday night. The Rockets were undefeated in conference play, but here Marshall was in a tie game with the bases loaded. With one swing of the bat, Tomasek sent a ball up the middle that scored Connor Neubeck and handed the Rockets their first loss of the season, 3-2, on Hall of Fame Night at Legion Field.

“To beat an undefeated team, what more can you say? This is what dreams are made of, this is what baseball is all about right here,” said Russ Sanow, the man of honor at the game.

Before the game, a ceremony was held to honor Russ Sanow’s induction into the Marshall Baseball Association’s Hall of Fame. Sanow is the 18th member of the Hall of Fame and was inducted for his time serving on the board of the Marshall Area Youth Baseball Association and serving as the Marshall Baseball Association secretary and gambling manager. Since his retirement, he’s also served as the concession manager at American Legion Field.

“I know I’ve been around baseball a long time and the board thought I was worthy of it. I’m glad they did. I’m real proud to be serving Marshall baseball,” Sanow said. “It’s all about the team. It’s all about the kids. That’s what it’s all about.”

Neubeck started the A’s rally in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff single to right field. When Matt Hmielewski doubled to the same spot, Neubeck was 90 feet away from the game-winning run. The Rockets intentionally walked Jordan Mernaugh to load the bases with no outs, bringing Tomasek up to bat.

“I really wanted to make the pitcher work. I wasn’t going to let them have it easy,” Tomasek said. “I was trying to keep the nerves down, my knees were shaking a little bit, but I wasn’t too worried. I’d been in this position before.”

After being ahead 2-0 in the count, Raymond pitcher John Sawatzky battled back to 2-2. One more ball made the count 3-2, making the next pitch the one that would decide the game. As the pitch arrived at the plate, Tomasek cracked it right up the middle and it landed safely in the outfield grass, allowing Neubeck to sprint to the plate and score the walk-off run.

“As soon as I saw it get past the pitcher, I knew it was going to make it past the middle infield. Especially since it felt really good off the bat,” Tomasek said.

Hunter Weinhoff had another big game on the mound for Marshall. He pitched the full nine innings and held Raymond to eight hits with his only hiccup being a two-run eighth inning.

“[He was] just throwing strikes and spotting his offspeed,” Marshall manager Ryan Schwagel said of Weinhoff. “Just pounding the strike zone. He didn’t get a high pitch count until right at that eighth inning when he gave up a couple of runs, but just being a bulldog on the mound for us is what we need.”

Raymond sent a line drive down the first baseline to start the top of the eighth inning, giving the Rockets a runner on third with no outs. After a strikeout, Raymond hit a ball to left-center field that got wedged in the fence, resulting in an automatic double and putting the Rockets on the scoreboard. They followed it up with another automatic double, this time to right-center, to knot up the game at 2-2. A single and a fielder’s choice put runners on the corners with two outs, but a pop out to second base ended the inning with the game still tied.

AJ Toulouse sent a hard-hit ball into right field to start the bottom of the sixth and stole second on a passed ball. From there, Chase Douglas sent a high fly ball to dead-center field. The ball was caught for an out, but it allowed Toulouse to advance to third. From there, Peyton Granit hit a fly ball to deep left field. Again, the ball was caught, but again Toulouse showed off his speed to beat the throw home and put Marshall up 1-0.

Matt Hmielewski singled in the seventh inning, stole second and advanced to third on the errant throw. From there, Jordan Mernaugh walked and Logan Tomasek sent a hard-hit ground ball down the third baseline. The third baseman wasn’t able to recover it to get the throw off, but he was able to stop the ball enough that Hmielewski wasn’t able to try to run home, bringing Ryan VanMoer up to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. VanMoer drilled the ball deep to right field to score Hmielewski and increase the Marshall lead to 2-0. The inning ended with Mernaugh getting picked off at second.

Raymond threatened to break the scoring drought in the top of the fifth inning with a leadoff double. Yet, Weinhoff struck out the next batter and Seth Resnick zipped the ball over to second base to pick off the runner. The next batter popped out to keep the game scoreless.

Connor Neubeck and Hmielewski singled to lead off the second inning. Mernaugh then laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. Yet, a pair of strikeouts prevented the A’s from capitalizing on the opportunity.

Marshall (11-5) will have over a week off before its next game, a road matchup against Hadley Saturday at 2 p.m.

“It gives us the jolt we need,” Schwagel said of the win. “They were 10-0 in league before this and that’s a big win for us in the standings and tiebreakers… hopefully they keep that momentum going after the fourth [of July].”