Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall third baseman Josh Kraft (right) celebrates with teammate Levi Maeyaert after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against New Ulm at American Legion Field in Marshall on Tuesday afternoon.

MARSHALL — Josh Kraft came up with a hit in each of his four at-bats to lead the Marshall baseball team to victory over New Ulm on Tuesday night. The junior third baseman drove in six runs and finished just a double shy of the cycle in the Tigers’ 15-5 win in five innings.

“I was just thinking about the team, just helping the team anywhere I can and getting hits for them,” Kraft said, adding that he felt the group as a whole used its hitting struggles its last time out as fuel to the fire for Tuesday’s game.

In the Tigers’ last time out on the field, a pair of losses in a home doubleheader against Fairmont, they struggled to string hits together. Marshall tallied a total of five hits over the two losses. They tied that mark in the first inning of Tuesday’s blowout victory over New Ulm and finished the game outhitting the Eagles 10-4.

“We got our pitch and we didn’t miss it. That was the tale of our last five games that we’ve been playing,” Marshall head coach Chace Pollock said. “Credit to our guys, they didn’t miss today. Like I said, hitting is contagious and it can go the other way. Today it went the other way for us and I’m proud that we could break out of it.”

Andrew Stelter and Levi Maeyaert started the game strong for the Tigers, reaching base on a walk and a hit-by-pitch respectively. They didn’t stay on base for long as Kraft hammered the first pitch he saw about 350 feet over the left field wall to give Marshall a 3-0 lead.

“It was a little low fastball, I just made an adjustment at the plate,” Kraft said of the home run. “I figured it was going to be gone but I was still going to run it out anyway.”

New Ulm pitcher Blaine Olson struck out the next batter he saw, but Talan Plante came back with a double and Ashton Blomberg followed up with an RBI single for the Tigers. After Coby Brownlee was hit by a pitch, Olson was replaced by Kaden Larson on the mound after just 1/3 inning pitched.

Even after the pitching change, the Tigers continued to put together offense and extend the inning. Sam Thor drew a walk with the bases loaded to force in one run and, after Tanner Backer fielded a ball at first and threw it home to save a run for the second out, Maeyaert hit an RBI single in his second at-bat of the game to make the score 7-0.

Josh Kraft tripled in another pair of runs to get one step closer to the cycle and then scored on a passed ball to make the score 10-0.

“We had patient at-bats. A lot of those runners were due to walks and hit-by-pitches and then guys cashed in on it,” Pollock said of the team’s overall offensive success in the game, noting that Blomberg swung the ball particularly well on the day with three hits, as did Kraft with four.

Blomberg pitched the first five innings for Marshall, holding New Ulm to four hits and two walks but allowing five earned runs. Still, he struck out five batters and earned his first win of the year on the mound.

New Ulm rallied its way back into the game when Backer and Preston Holberg were hit by a pitch in consecutive at-bats to start the fourth inning, trailing 12-2. A strikeout and a fielder’s choice put two away but R. Ruthmann was hit by another to load up the bases.

Kyle Albrecht hit a bloop single to shallow center in the next at-bat. The ball ended up in no-man’s land, leading right fielder Liam Kruse and second baseman Jude Knudson to collide as the ball dropped. All three runners scored to cut Marshall’s lead to 12-5 and Albrecht advanced to second as the ball laid untouched.

“A lot was going on. The ball was in between so both guys were going for it, not to mention that the sun was setting right in the spot where the ball was coming down. So both guys were going hard at it,” Pollock said. “It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just a perfectly placed ball and give both guys credit for going after it.”

The team does not yet know the extent of Knudson and Kruse’s injuries but is hoping to hear positive news, Pollock said.

Olson was charged with the loss for New Ulm, allowing six earned runs while getting just one out. Larson pitched another 1 2/3 frames, allowing three earned runs and another two unearned, while Zach Hubbard allowed four earned runs over 2 1/3 frames. As a team, New Ulm combined to strike out two batters.

New Ulm first got on the board in the top of the third when Lucas Seuss hit a leadoff single. From there, Aidan Jensen crushed a home run well past the fence to make the score 11-2.

Plante and Blomberg reached base safely to start the bottom of the second and, after consecutive outs, Thor drew a walk to load the bases. Stelter drew another in the next at-bat to force in a run for an 11-0 Tiger lead but Larson induced a pop out and fielded it himself just ahead of the mound to minimize the damage.

Stelter reached base on a fielder’s choice and scored on a Kraft single in the bottom of the fourth to make it an eight-run game. After Braxton Koster pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the top of the fifth, allowing just one walk while striking out two batters, to give the Tigers the opportunity to end the game in the bottom of the frame.

Plante led off the fifth by drawing a walk and Ashton Blomberg was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat. New Ulm got the out at third when Braeden Myhre hit a grounder to short, but the Eagles made an errant throw to first in an attempt at a double play and Myhre and Blomberg advanced to second and third on the error.

After Juehl Morman was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Andrew Cowden was hit by another to force in one run and Owen Kesteloot drove in Myhre on a ground out to end the game via run rule.

Marshall improves to 9-3 with the win while New Ulm falls to 3-6 on the season. Marshall will remain at home when it hosts Mankato East on Friday at 5 p.m. while the Eagles will return to competition on Thursday to host Fairmont at 5:30 p.m.