Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall right fielder Deagan Maurice slides into home plate for the go-ahead run during the Tigers' 2-0 win in a baseball game against Mankato East at American Legion Field in Marshall on Friday.

MARSHALL — Marshall pitcher Liam Kruse put together a new career-high in strikeouts on Friday night to lead the Tigers past Mankato East in a 2-0 pitcher’s duel.

In the Tigers’ previous game against New Ulm, Kruse and second baseman Jude Knudson collided on a defensive play in shallow right field, knocking both players out of the game. While Knudson was unable to play on Friday, Kruse started on the mound for Marshall. He still felt sore the day after the collision, Kruse said, but felt 100% ahead of Friday’s game.

“I just felt like I was in command the whole game,” Kruse said. “I was starting off with a lot of first-pitch strikes, so that helped a lot, but yeah, any hits they got were just straight to the defense so they did a good job of backing me up.”

Kruse hadn’t allowed more than three hits in a game all season and that didn’t change on Friday. He held the Cougars to two hits and four walks while striking out a season-high 10 batters. Even with the high pitch count, he remained efficient with 104 pitches over the full seven innings.

“That’s as good as I’ve seen him on the mound,” Marshall head coach Chace Pollock said. “He just keeps getting better and better. When he looks like that and he’s in command of his fastball, he’s really tough to beat.”

While both teams were able to put runners on base in the early innings, neither was able to keep them on base for long. Marshall and Mankato East each had a pair of runners picked off at first base in the first two innings.

“It was our first left-handed pitcher we’ve seen. We’ve talked about it early in the gym but it’s probably been a month since we’ve been out here getting reps in,” Pollock said of the pickoffs. “We talked through it a little bit this week but we need to do a better job than that. And for them [Mankato East], we just got lucky on a couple of those.”

Both times Tigers were picked off came in the second inning, but that didn’t stop Marshall from rallying ahead. After Ashton Blomberg was picked off at first for the first out of the inning, Coby Brownlee drew a walk to get on base.

Deagan Maurice then hit a ball that went just over the Mankato East right fielder and made its way back to the wall. The hit allowed Brownlee to score the go-ahead run and Maurice to reach third for a triple.

In the next at-bat, Juehl Morman rolled over a pitch and the ball dribbled up the grass toward the mound. The Cougars elected to attempt to catch Maurice at the plate but the throw was late, giving Morman an RBI single for a 2-0 Marshall lead, a score that would hold through the end of the game.

“Both teams are a lot alike,” Pollock said of Marshall and Mankato East. “That’s what you get, we knew that going in. It could have gone either way but we’re happy we capitalized on those two runs in the second inning.”

Maurice and Morman’s back-to-back hits ended up being the Tigers’ only hits all game. Levi Maeyaert, Talan Plante and Blomberg each drew a walk on the day but no Tigers reached base after the second inning.

The win marked the third time this season Marshall has come out on top despite putting together a total of two or fewer hits in a game. Despite the lack of offensive production, the Tigers continue to find a way to win.

“We’re pitching really well, playing really good defense, and that’s how you win in the playoffs,” Pollock said. “You put those two things together, good things are going to happen. Today we did that and it was a fun day at the ballpark.”

Owen Studtmann recorded the loss on the mound for Mankato East but also put force a performance deserving of a win. He struck out six batters over the course of his complete-game outing and threw four perfect innings after allowing two runs in the second.

Studtmann also had a single to lead off the fourth inning before a double play and a strikeout ended the frame. The only other Cougar with a hit on the day was Jack Hansen, who singled in the second inning before getting picked off.

Marshall improves to 10-3 with the win while Mankato East falls to 11-4. The Tigers will look to pick up their third consecutive win when they go on the road to play Waseca today at 11 a.m.