Photo by Travis Rosenau/The Journal, New Ulm Marshall’s Josh Kraft (18) pitches in relief late during a Sub-State 2 Legion Baseball Tournament elimination game against Northfield at Mueller Park in New Ulm on Thursday.

NEW ULM — The Marshall Mudcats took home two wins in the DI Sub-State 2 Senior Legion Baseball playoffs Thursday at Johnson Park in New Ulm, advancing to a semifinals game Friday.

Marshall defeated Northfield 9-8 in the first game of the day at Mueller Park and New Prague 8-4 in the second game at Johnson Park. Marshall will next face the loser of Mankato National and Mankato American at 4 p.m. Friday at Johnson Park.

“I think we were flat in the first one,” Marshall manager Mitch Maxwell said. “We lost yesterday, and we were flat there. I thought there was a little bit of carryover. We broke out of that in the second inning with a six-run inning in the first one. I think that that helped us regain some confidence and momentum. We brought that right from where we were in game one into Game 2 and just kept rolling.

“Great job by our pitchers of recovering and then, in this game [against New Prague], consistently being around the zone, changing pitches. So just a little bit of everything there.”

Maxwell thought that his team did a good job of coming away with the last play in both games, as Marshall played a pair of tightly contested matchups.

“Marshall baseball prides itself on pitching, defense and timely hitting,” Maxwell said. “I think that when we win against a great team like New Prague, you have to do those three things. When you look at what happened in the second inning in Game 1, that continued into Game 2. I think we did that in those tight middle innings. We made a few mistakes, but we stayed the course and made some really great plays that made up for anything that may have happened previously.”

In Game 1, Owen Kesteloot picked up the win on the mound for Marshall, striking out three while allowing four runs on five hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings. At the plate, Deagan Maurice was 2 for 2 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while Liam Kruse was 2 for 2 with a run scored. Josh Kraft had a hit and two RBIs, while Cooper Mensink was 2 for 4 with two runs scored. Sam Thor and Coby Brownlee had a hit and two RBIs.

Marshall quickly fell behind 7-0 in the second inning, but came back in the bottom of the second with six runs, highlighted by a two-RBI double by Brownlee and a groundout put into play by Thor to score another two runs. Marshall took the lead in the third with singles by Maurice and Thor and a walk by Kraft, all to score runs and go up 9-7. Marshall held onto that lead for the rest of the game, only surrendering a single run in the final four innings of the game.

Braxton Koster earned the win on the mound for Marshall in Game 2,

striking out two while allowing three runs, none earned, on two hits and three walks in four innings of work. At the plate, Mensink was 3 for 3 with three runs scored and three stolen bases, while Andrew Stelter was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Koster, Maurice and Brownlee each had a hit and an RBI.

Marshall got on the board right away as Stelter doubled and Thor and Kruse walked to load the bases. The bases were promptly cleared again with a pair of wild pitches and a sacrifice fly by Koster to take a 3-0 lead.

After a scoreless second, New Prague got a run in the third off of an error and a wild pitch, then scored three more runs in the fourth, again helped by an error by Marshall.

Marshall committed three errors in the game, with two of them coming off of double-play attempts that sailed wide of first base.

“I think it’s just guys that need to calm down and trust themselves more than anything else,” Maxwell said of the errors. “You’ve got to have the sure guy, which is your first out, you’ve got to make sure to get that one. Then you have to transfer and get it over to first base. I think we just got a little ambitious, or we rushed those a little bit. Something that we’ll talk about and be ready for tomorrow.”

Marshall did come away with a run in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Stelter, meaning that it was a 4-4 game after the bottom of the inning. Marshall broke that tie in the fifth, with Maurice driving in Koster with a single and Kesteloot getting a sacrifice fly to score Mensink and take a 6-4 lead.

Defensively, Marshall put things together in the sixth, with Koster striking out two and coaxing a pop fly to retire the side in order. In the top of the seventh, Marshall added two insurance runs with Mensink and Maurice crossing the plate on hits by Brownlee and Stelter. In the bottom of the frame, the Marshall defense fielded three groundouts to get their second consecutive three up, three down inning to end the game.

Marshall will need to win its game on Friday if they want to make it back to the championship game on Saturday. In order to do so, Maxwell says the team will have to stick to what they know.

“Throw strikes, get outs, make your defensive plays, and timely hitting,” he said. “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but that’s what we do when we win games. We’ll continue to do that.”