Photo by Travis Rosenau: Marshall’s Owen Kesteloot delivers a pitch Friday during a DI Sub-State 2 Legion Baseball Tournament semifinals game against Mankato American at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — One day removed from being upset by the No. 5-seeded New Ulm Gold, the No. 2-seeded Marshall Mudcats knew putting that behind them and playing a complete game would be needed Friday if they wanted their legion season to continue.

Against the top-seeded Mankato American on Friday in a win-or-go home semifinals game, the Mudcats got that complete game in more ways than one.

Behind Owen Kesteloot’s seven shutout innings on the mound, early offense at the plate and clean defense in the field, the Mudcats shut out the American 5-0 in the DI Sub-State 2 Legion Baseball Tournament at Johnson Park.

The win moves Marshall on to a 10 a.m. finals game against Mankato National at Johnson Park on Saturday. Marshall needs two wins to move on to state, however, and will also need to defeat Gold in a second finals game at approximately 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Johnson Park. Gold earned their way to the finals Saturday by winning a winners bracket game Thursday against Marshall.

Gold earned its way to the finals Saturday by winning a winners bracket game Thursday against Marshall.

Kesteloot struck out four batters in his complete-game shutout, allowing five hits and three walks while throwing 103 pitches, 64 of which were strikes. While he did get into a few jams against a tough American offense, he never let it rattle him. 

One case came in the fourth when American loaded the bases after a single and back-to-back walks with one out. Kesteloot calmly got out of it with a strikeout and a pop out.

“Just stay relaxed, stay calm,” Kesteloot said. “We’ve got good defense behind us and we were up by like four runs… we had a couple runs, we were still winning, so I just stayed calm up there and let my defense do the work.”

The Marshall defense didn’t let Kesteloot down, committing just one error all game in the seventh on a misplayed grounder. Kesteloot anchored down with a strikeout and then forced a flyout to right fielder Liam Kruse to punch the Mudcats’ ticket to the final day of the tournament Saturday.

Kesteloot’s strong performance on the mound wouldn’t have been complete without his defense behind him, but it also wouldn’t have been complete without his team’s early offense setting the tone.

Andrew Stelter, who went 2 for 4 in the game, led off the game with a single to right before Eli Weedman doubled to left to score Stelter for a quick 1-0 Marshall lead. Josh Kraft was hit by a pitch before American starting pitcher Caeden Willaert forced a lineout for the first out.

A walk to Kruse brought up JR Vierstraete, who singled on a liner to right to score Weedman for a 2-0 lead. A sac fly off the bat of Shep Jensen made it 3-0.

The Mudcats made it 4-0 in the third on a bunt single by Kruse to score Kraft, who doubled to lead off the inning and finished the game 2 for 3 with three runs scored.

“I just go up there and try my best,” Kraft said. “It builds more confidence for our pitcher as well and our defense. Just keep our nerves calm and also having this confidence in all of our teammates to just get into scoring position and just get us in.”

Kraft led off the fifth with another hit, this time a single to left field, and later scored the fifth and final run of the game on an error.

After falling into elimination play with a loss to New Ulm on Thursday, Kraft said the team was quick to put it behind them and it paid off on Friday.

“After any loss we have, our coaches always tell us to just flush it down the toilet, don’t think about it and just go game by game and just get back to where we were,” Kraft said. “We just didn’t think about it.”

Kesteloot, who didn’t have to take any at-bats in the game and got to focus on his play on the mound, said he was happy to knock off American after previous games during the high school season.

“They beat us in school ball, so it was kind of personal for us,” he said. “They beat us a lot, and to go beat Mankato West [National] earlier this tournament and to beat this team, too, it just feels really good to win.”

BOX SCORE

MARSHALL

C. Willaert: L, IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB; N. Bridge: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, ER, 4 SO.