MARSHALL –The Marshall A’s got their season off to a strong start on Saturday when they hosted Willmar for their home opener at Legion Field in Corn Belt League play. Mitchell Bouwman limited the Indians to one unearned run while striking out 13 batters in a 5-1 win.

Bouwman pitched the game’s first six innings for Marshall, holding Willmar to two hits. He didn’t walk a batter, and 80 of his 106 pitches went for strikes.

Both of the hits Bouwman allowed came in the first. From there, the only baserunners he allowed came on a pair of errors with two outs in the second and a dropped third strike and another error to drive in a run in the sixth.

Ashton Blomberg closed out the save with three scoreless, hitless innings. Blomberg struck out a pair of batters without allowing a walk.

Cannon Craigmile hit a double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, earning his first career hit as a member of the A’s.

Marshall first got on the board in the bottom of the first when Cody Wichmann singled, advanced to second on a Talan Plante single and scored on a Logan Tomasek single. Plante also hit a sacrifice fly to score Blomberg in the fourth to bring Marshall’s lead to 2-0.

Plante, Tomasek and Dillon Loft each finished with a pair of hits for the Tigers, with Plante logging three RBIs and Tomasek adding a walk and an RBI.

After Willmar got on the board in the top of the sixth, Marshall responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame. Loft singled, Wichmann walked and both scored on a Plante single. Plante then scored on an error by Willmar catcher Jean Carlos Morales.

Jaciel Cardenas pitched the first 5 1/3 innings for Willmar, giving up four earned runs and one unearned run on 10 hits with a pair of walks. Ever Peralta and Jose Ortiz pitched 1 2/3 and one scoreless inning, respectively, with Cardenas giving up a hit and each of the two giving up a walk.

Each of Willmar’s three pitchers struck out one batter.

Nemias Caballero and Jelking Herrera each singled once for Willmar.

Marshall improves to 1-0 with the win and goes on the road to take on Pipestone for its next game on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.