Photo by Samantha Davis. Marshall Legion Black's Cannon Craigmile throws a pitch against Sleepy Eye Tuesday night at the Irish Yard in Milroy. Craigmile finished the game with 13 strikeouts while allowing one hit.

MILROY — A six-run third inning while capitalizing off errors gave the Marshall Junior Legion Black 17U team an 8-1 win over Sleepy Eye Tuesday night at the Irish Yard in Milroy. Pitcher Cannon Craigmile had a stellar performance and tossed 13 strikeouts, while allowing just one hit through all seven innings on the mound.

“I thought we came out ready to play,” Craigmile said. “We came into a nice field, thanks to the Irish for letting us play [here] … We haven’t played since last week, and we lost our first game in that doubleheader [to St. Peter on Thursday]. So, it was good to get back on a little streak here.”

The first inning was scoreless for the two teams, yet Marshall got the bats going in the second with two runs before embarking on a third-inning rally to put the game out of reach early on.

Craigmile also allowed just three walks on the night in his 25 batters faced, along with one earned run.

“I haven’t pitched in a while, so it was just good to get back in there,” Craigmile said. “I want to give credit to my catcher [Jackson Sirovy]. He did a great job behind the dish. It was good to mix up some looks … And it was just good to hit the zone.”

Overall, Sleepy Eye finished with one hit and four errors, to Marshall’s six hits and two errors.

Ethan Weedman led the offense with a pair of hits, while Craigmile and Cody Rauch shared a team-high two runs each.

Marshall put itself up 8-1 following the third inning, with a run from Ethan Boeck starting the momentum off a Noah Pieper RBI double on a fly ball to deep left field.

Pieper also advanced Tyler Kraft to third off his hit, who next scored on a Trae Bailey sacrifice fly to right field after tagging base.

Pieper was able to run home with a Sirovy RBI single to left field to put Marshall up 5-1.

Both Craigmile and Rauch stole home on back-to-back wild pitches, who was initially walked while Rauch courtesy ran for Sirovy.

The final run of the third before Sleepy Eye could put a stop to Marshall came from Noah Frazee off an Andrew Lee sacrifice hit to center field, while Black also went through its entire batting order during the inning.

“We put the ball in play, we took advantage of some of their [Sleepy Eye’s] mistakes,” Marshall manager Chace Pollock said. “We hit some balls hard tonight, too. Defensively, we played well enough behind Cannon, and if you pitch like that, you’re going to win a lot of ball games.”

Rauch and Craigmile accounted for Marshall’s two runs in the second inning to spark the offense. Lee hit an infield single, who reached base off a Sleepy Eye defensive error that also allowed the duo to score.

Rauch again courtesy ran for Sirovy, who initially hit an infield single, while Craigmile was walked.

“I feel like a lot of kids in the dugout, we’re cheering each other on. When someone gets home, if someone has a sac fly, we’re always out here cheering them on saying good word,” Craigmile said. “I feel like we just have good team chemistry together, and that’s just what helps us.”

Sleepy Eye scored its one run in the top of the third inning, with a batter reaching on a walk who proceeded to steal second and third base, and also took home off a Marshall throw-down attempt to second.

Craigmile remained confident on the mound, throwing competitive pitches, while Marshall’s defense also continued to keep Sleepy Eye’s hits limited as the final four innings went scoreless between the two teams.

Craigmile put the game to an end in Sleepy Eye’s final at-bat in the top of the seventh with a trio of strikeouts.

“He [Craigmile] did a great job,” Pollock said. “He settled in and didn’t let any drop, and there’s a lot of life on his fastball, which is good.”

Marshall’s win comes after it suffered its first loss of the season last Thursday 7-0 to St. Peter, who looks to start a new winning streak.

Marshall moves to 13-1 and will next host Luverne on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Legion Field.

“I told them after the game, it’s good to battle through adversity and learn through some of those things,” Pollock said. “You find out what you’re made of during those times, and it’s good for us. If we didn’t have that tonight, we wouldn’t have battled through much of anything. I was happy we did that. It was a good night to play baseball.”