Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall outfielder Wesley Sarsland swings at a pitch during the first inning of the A’s game against Wabasso at American Legion Field in Marshall on Wednesday night. The A’s defeated the Jaxx 15-3 in seven innings.

MARSHALL — A fourth-inning offensive explosion propelled the Marshall A’s to a skid-snapping victory against Wabasso on Wednesday night. After scoring three runs or fewer in each of their last four games, all losses, the A’s strung together 15 hits on the night to pull away handily for an 15-3 win in seven innings. 

“I think we all kind of slumped at the same time there the past couple of weeks but came together today,” Marshall second baseman Chase Douglas said. “I think everybody felt good, everybody had a good day, so let’s keep it rolling.”

The Jaxx found their way to onto the scoreboard in the top of the first when Adryen Tietz single, advanced to third on a Josh Guetter sacrifice bunt and a Joe Liebl ground out, and then scored on a Carter Guetter single. That would be the only time the Jaxx led on the day.

Wabasso’s lead slipped away just a half inning later. Peyton Grant hit drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored when Douglas drilled a double into center field. Douglas moved to third on a Wes Sarsland single and then scored when Cody Wichmann reached on a fielder’s choice. The A’s only built on that 2-0 lead as the game progressed.

Keeping the Marshall advantage in check from the mound was starting pitcher Jake Eben. He tossed all seven innings for the A’s and, after allowing two hits and a run in the first, he limited the Jaxx to one hit over the next four scoreless innings. Eben finished the day with two earned runs allowed on five hits and a walk.

Douglas led off the third inning by beating out a ground ball single and advancing to second on the errant throw to first. A single from Wes Sarsland moved him over to third base and Charlie Jacobson reached on a fielder’s choice to score Douglas.

The third-inning rally continued when Wichmann singled, stole second and then scored on a two-out single from Connor Neubeck.

While Marshall held a tenuous 4-1 lead after the third, the fourth put the game out of reach. AJ Toulouse crushed a double into center field to start the fourth inning and got to third on a Peyton Grant sacrifice fly. Douglas then singled Toulouse in for one run and advanced to third on a stolen base and a Sarsland single. 

Sarsland attempted to steal second base and Tietz balked trying to throw him out, sending Douglas home. A passed ball and a walk put Sarsland and Charlie Jacobson on the corners with one. An RBI single from Wichmann prompted the Jaxx to relieve starting pitcher Adryen Tietz with CJ Theis with the Jaxx trailing 7-1 with two runners on.

The change did nothing to abate the A’s rally. Connor Neubeck singled to load up the bases and a three-run double from Logan Tomasek gave the A’s a nine-run advantage. Toulouse then singled in Tomasek on his second at-bat of the inning to make the score 11-1. 

The fourth-inning rally marked just the second time since June 14 that the A’s have scored five or more runs in a game, the other instance being a 10-2 win over Pipestone on June 26. 

“I think we’ve just got to hit with runners on,” Douglas said on the difference in the team’s offensive performance on Wednesday. “That was our focal point the last couple of games that we struggled with. We had bases loaded I think twice last game and couldn’t get any runs in, so today it was good to see that we had a couple of big hits.”

Tietz was tagged with nine runs — seven of which were earned — over 3 1/3 innings for Wabasso. He struck out three batters while allowing three walks and nine hits.

“Not enough strikes were thrown. It was a struggle there with the high pitch count,” manager Dustin Tietz said. “Too many 3-2 counts with the batter, we just couldn’t get the guys out.”

In relief, Theis pitched 1 2/3 frames, allowing four earned runs on four hits and a pair of walks, while Josh Guetter allowed two earned runs on two hits and a walk in the seventh.

Marshall finished the day with 16 hits to Wabasso’s five. Douglas went 3 of 3 with a double and a walk on the day, Neubeck finished with three singles and a walk and Sarsland added another three singles in three plate appearances. Toulouse and Tomasek each also reached safely in each of their three at-bats, with Toulouse logging a double, single and a walk while Tomasek reached on a single, double and an error.

For the Jaxx, Liebl singled twice and reached on an error while Carter Guetter singled and reached twice on errors.

The A’s added an extra pair of insurance runs in the fifth when Andrew Cowden reached on a fielder’s choice, replacing Douglas on first, and Wichmann walked to put two runners on. A passed ball advanced Cowden and Wichmann into scoring position and Neubeck followed up with a two-run single, making the score 13-1 and pushing Neubeck into a tie with Tomasek with a game-high three RBIs.

Wabasso started the sixth inning by putting three consecutive runners on courtesy of three Marshall errors. Liebl reached on an error at first base to start the frame, advanced to third when Carter Guetter reached on an error at third base and then Sam Guetter hit a fly ball into right fall that slipped out of an A’s glove to drive in Liebl, making the score 13-2. Yet, two line outs and a ground out ended the inning without the Jaxx capitalizing further.

Toulouse walked and Cooper Mensink doubled to start the bottom of the sixth inning and Liam Kruse followed up by crushing a ball a mile high and out to the warning track for a two-run double, giving Marshall a 13-run cushion heading into the final frame.

Chase Irlbeck started the Jaxx off with a leadoff double to start the seventh. Adryen Tietz hit a hard grounder to third, where Tomasek ranged away from the bag to field the ball and then dived back at the bag to tag it with his glove just in time to get the out. Liebl had an RBI single to drive in Irlbeck but Eben and the A’s retired the batters before and after him to end the inning and the game.

Marshall improves to 10-6 with the victory and 6-4 in the corn belt, moving them ahead of Granite Falls and keeping them tied with the Milroy Yankees for third place. The A’s will host Sacred Heart on Friday night for their second-to-last home game.

Wabasso falls to 3-12 overall and 1-9 in the Corn Belt after picking up their sixth loss in seven games. They’ll look to turn things around when they host Bird Island on Friday for their penultimate home game.

“It’s been a tough schedule but actually we’ve been competitive,” Dustin Tietz said, with each of his team’s first four losses of the year coming in games divided by four or fewer runs as well as the 3-1 loss to Milroy on June 28. “We keep playing good defense- I know the score obviously didn’t show good defense but there were ones that we made plays on, didn’t have a lot of errors. So I’m looking to be competitive… I’m not bowing down to anyone. Granite Falls, we can beat them, we did beat them before. We’ve got Willmar coming up, that’s a beatable game, they’re [one spot] above us in the seedings, and Sacred [Heart], we beat them at the beginning of the year, so that’s all coming up.”