Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall second baseman Chase Douglas applies a tag to catch a runner stealing during the Marshall A’s Region 4C Tournament matchup against top-seeded Raymond on Saturday at Milroy Yankees Field.

MILROY – A pair of late clutch hits from Connor Neubeck weren’t enough to give the No. 4 Marshall A’s the upset win over No. 1 Raymond in the Region 4C elimination bracket at Milroy Yankees Field Saturday morning. Marshall rallied late, scoring a run in each of the final three innings, but the Rockets ended the A’s season with a 4-3 loss.

“We gelled great as a team pretty much all the way through. From winning the Belle Plaine tournament to walking off some teams, it was a fun year. We just couldn’t capitalize at the end,” Marshall manager Ryan Schwagel said.

Trailing 4-2 heading into the top of the ninth, Logan Tomasek and Ryan VanMoer singled consecutively to put the tying run on first. After a strikeout, Chase Douglas hit a single into no man’s land to drive in a run and advance VanMoer to third. Yet, a fly out to the shortstop ended the Marshall rally and its season.

“We just needed a couple of base runners. That was our problem the whole game, so I was just trying not to do too much. A little base hit and try to keep it rolling for the squad,” Douglas said.

Marshall was held scoreless with just one hit through the first six innings and had just one hit. Raymond pitcher Cole Christensen went the full nine, striking out 13 batters on 140 pitches. He also allowed just two walks.

“Cole’s a great pitcher, he just pounded the strike zone and we hit it right at him. He used his defense well,” Schwagel said.

In the top of the seventh, however, Connor Neubeck crushed a pitch to straightaway center field. The Raymond center fielder got just the tip of his glove on the ball but couldn’t hang on, resulting in a two-bag error for Neubeck. From there, he advanced to third on a dropped third strike.

Neubeck was held up on a groundout to short on the next play and Logan Tomasek’s grounder to first appeared to end the inning. Yet, the first baseman fumbled the ball and the pitcher was unable to hold onto his throw when he flipped it to first. The error allowed Tomasek to reach safely and Neubeck to score Marshall’s first run.

“That’s awesome. I mean, that’s baseball. We’ve been battling all year and we battled them right down to the wire there,” Schwagel said of Marshall’s late rally. “We just need one more. You know, one more hit or guys moving guys over in earlier innings… just the way it goes sometimes.”

The Rockets responded by scoring a run of their own in the bottom of the frame to make the score 3-1 but Marshall came right back. AJ Toulouse and Chase Douglas led off the top of the eighth with consecutive hard-hit singles. A pair of strikeouts put Marshall’s back against the wall, but Neubeck lined the ball into the outfield to score Toulouse. Seth Resnick followed Neubeck with a hard-hit ball of his own, but it went right at the mound and he was thrown out at first to end the inning.

Mitchell Bouwman started the game for the A’s on the mound. Raymond struggled to put the ball in play against him – he allowed just two hits over 6 1/3 innings while striking out 10 batters- but some of the walks he allowed resulted in runs.

“He played great. Exactly what we needed out of him, a solid start. Went deep into the game and kept us in it,” Schwagel said of Bouwman. “Just throwing strikes and trusting our defense all the time, it just sucks our season ended like that.

In the second inning, Bouwman loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a hit batter. He did have three strikeouts in the inning, but a single allowed two runners to score.

The third run Bouwman allowed came in the bottom of the seventh. After a leadoff ground out, Bouwman walked consecutive batters before being relieved by Matt Hmielewski. He got the next batter to ground out, though it advanced runners to second and third.

With two outs, something strange happened; Hmielewski was stung by a wasp and, after flinching, was called for a balk. The runner on third scored and gave Raymond a 3-1 lead.

“It’s just one of those fluke things that you don’t ever see, but it came back to bite us today,” Schwagel said of the incident.

Hmielewski allowed one run on one hit over his 1 2/3 innings pitched. He also struck out a batter.

The Marshall A’s finish their season with a 17-10 overall record, highlighted by an eight-game win streak stretching through the first half of June. The team hopes to return most of its roster for next season but likely won’t have any certainty until December, Schwagel said.