Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall pitcher Owen Kesteloot throws from the mound during an American Legion baseball game against Mitchell (S.D.) on Tuesday at Legion Field in Marshall. 

MARSHALL — Hits were hard to come by for the Marshall American Legion baseball team on Tuesday in its doubleheader against Mitchell (S.D.). The Mudcats were limited to seven hits and one run across 14 innings of baseball, losing the opener 2-1 and the second game 5-0.

“[It was] pretty uninspired baseball here tonight,” Marshall manager Mitch Maxwell said, adding that he felt the team faced a similar level of opposing pitching in the Wood Bat Tournament in which Marshall picked up three mercy-rule wins, but couldn’t execute this time around. “We’re just not aggressive enough at the plate. We needed to find more barrels and we did some things that were really uncharacteristic defensively.”

Leyton Wherry was the lone Tiger with multiple hits on the day, singling once in each game, while Josh Kraft, Andrew Stelter and Tyson Louwagie each logged a hit and a walk.

Liam Kruse pitched the full seven innings in the first game without allowing an earned run, though a pair of errors left Marshall with the loss. In the second, Owen Kesteloot gave up three earned runs over 5 1/3 frames.

Marshall falls back below .500 to 6-7 on the season with the pair of losses. The Mudcats will now have a break for Independence Day before returning to action on Tuesday when they go on the road for a doubleheader against Mankato East and West at 4 p.m.

Maxwell said his team will look to flush Tuesday’s result from their minds before they get ready for a quality stretch of competition in the coming weeks.

“It’s baseball. We had some atom balls today too that, if they fall, things are different,” Maxwell said. “We’ll just go back to the basics and fundamentals and then we’ll be playing a lot of baseball.”

Marshall 1

A series of early errors doomed Marshall in the first game of its doubleheader against Mitchell (S.D.) on Tuesday. The Mudcats committed a pair of second-inning errors that led to a pair of Mitchell runs. Mitchell didn’t commit any errors and defeated Marshall 2-1 as a result.

“I thought we had one true error in that game and I thought we played fairly well defensively,” Maxwell said. “Kruse did a nice job, ran into a little problem there in that two-run inning, but two runs shouldn’t beat you. He gave a great effort on the mound and we need to reward him offensively at the plate.”

Mitchell capitalized on a pair of errors from Marshall in the top of the third. Carter McCormick reached base on a throwing error by Stelter at short, and Brayden Reindl singled and a late errant throw from Kesteloot at third allowed McCormick to advance to third. 

Riendl then tried to steal second, and the throw careened off his upper body into the outfield, allowing McCormick to run home for the go-ahead run. Kaiden Allen then singled in Reindl to make the score 2-0 in favor of Mitchell.

Despite the pair of unearned runs, Kruse put together a complete-game outing for Marshall. He struck out seven batters on the day and limited Mitchell to six hits and two walks on an efficient 97 pitches. 

Kraft put Marshall on the scoreboard by leading off the bottom of the fourth with a walk. After advancing to second on a Deagan Maurice walk, Kraft scored when Clayton Jones lined a single up the middle and over the pitcher’s glove into centerfield for an RBI single.

No Tigers reached base twice in the game. Kesteloot, Jones, Wherry and Louwagie accounted for Marshall’s four hits, including a double for Kesteloot. Mitchell finished with a total of six, led by two each from McCormick and Canon Moller. 

A Wherry single and a Louwaige walk put the go-ahead run on first for Marshall in the bottom of the seventh. Stelter came to the plate with two outs, but his fly ball to straightaway center field was caught near the warning track to end the game. 

Tyler Christensen finished just shy of a complete game, getting relieved by Jaxson Hartman with two runners on and two outs in the seventh. He struck out four Mudcats while allowing four hits and three walks for one earned run.

BOX SCORE

Batting

J. Kraft: 0-2, BB; D. Maurice: 0-2, BB; O. Kesteloot: 1-3 (2B); C. Jones: 1-3, RBI; L. Wherry: 1-3; T. Louwagie: 1-2, BB.

L. Kruse: L, 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO

GAME 2

Marshall 0

After being held without a hit for the first three innings, Mitchell put runners on second and third with no outs to start the fourth. McCormick was hit by a pitch before stealing second, and Reindl singled before stealing second. 

Hartman hit a ground out to short, and Stelter fielded, froze the runner at third and threw it to first for an out. Reindl started running to third before just barely beating the throw back to second. Yet, Koster made an errant throw to third trying to get McCormick, and McCormick instead ran home for the go-ahead run.

A Moller walk and an Allen single set the stage for Mitchell to add to its lead in the fifth inning. Marshall tried to catch Moller advancing to third on Allen’s single, but the throw was late and Allen advanced to second to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. 

Ian Weber capitalized on the opportunity with a single into left field to score Moller, and Allen tagged up to score on a Christensen sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0.

Kesteloot gave up three earned and two unearned runs in his start for Marshall, striking out six batters while allowing five hits and a walk over 5 1/3 innings. Logan Miller also pitched 1 2/3 frames of scoreless relief, striking out three batters while allowing a hit and a walk.

An error, a hit batter and a single reloaded the bases for Mitchell in the top of the sixth. A fly out put one away, but Allen singled in Hartman for one run and Bailor Kristensen scored on a passed ball to make the score 5-0.

Jacob Ebert threw two no-hit innings to start the shutout for Mitchell, walking two batters while striking out another pair. Allen closed out the game with five shutout innings, striking out five batters while allowing three hits and a walk to earn the win.

Stelter logged a single and a walk in the game while Kraft and Wherry accounted for the Mudcats’ other two hits.

BOX SCORE

Batting

O. Kesteloot: L, 5.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 ER, BB, 6 SO; L. Miller: 1.2 IP, H, BB, 3 SO.