Article by Thomas Duzan
Varsity @ Mattoon, Wednesday, March 25
The last part of the Marshall Lions’ opening road trip found them at Kinzler Field in Mattoon to take on the Mattoon Greenwave on Wednesday. It’s been a trip of opposites, struggling to hit much one game and then busting out the bats in a big way the next.
Unfortunately for Marshall, the former was where they landed Wednesday, only putting up one hit in a six-inning shutout defeat by the score of 10-0.
Branson Maskell led the game off looking to get on base right away. He went after the first pitch of the game but he popped out. Reed Ramey came up next but struck out. Garrett Pugh then saw a few pitches in his at-bat and then connected solidly for a deep fly ball to left field, but it fell just short for a loud flyout for the third out.
From there, Pugh went to start on the mound for the Lions for this game but struggled early on. He surrendered a leadoff walk to Brendan Prince. He was able to strike out Preston Walk but then hit Mathew Miller with a pitch. An RBI double for Fletcher Gregory brought Prince in to score, and Miller later scored on a wild pitch.
Four Mattoon runs came across to score with 10 batters coming to the plate, giving the Greenwave a 4-0 lead going to the second.
It was a quiet top of the second for Marshall. Eli Thompson led the inning off with a groundout to first, then Liam Keim, one day removed from taking a line drive off his right knee on the mound, struck out and Cage Stuckey struck out also. Walk started the bottom of the inning with a single, and Miller followed with a hit of his own.
An RBI single for Gregory brought in Walk to score. The first out for the Lions came when Derek Sharp grounded into a fielders’ choice. Miller made his way around to third and looked to take home and score, but the Lions caught a break on a failed bunt attempt and Miller was out at the plate.
Max Wetzel lined out to left field to keep the damage at one run. That sent the game to the third with Mattoon now up 5-0.
The Lion bats continued to struggle in the top of the third. Shane Tarble and Tucker Osborn both struck out, then Gavan Propst flew out to left. Max Welsh came on to pitch in relief of Pugh in the bottom of the inning and got leadoff hitter Hackett to fly out. He then gave up a double to Spracklen.
Later in the inning, the top of the Mattoon order came back up and put together three straight hits with Prince’s RBI single, Walk’s RBI double and an RBI triple for Miller put Mattoon over the top. That made it an 8-0 game going to the fourth.
It was a scoreless fourth inning for both teams. Maskell grounded out and Ramey and Pugh both struck out. The bottom of the fourth ended up being the only scoreless inning for the Greenwave as Sharp flew out, and Wetzel and Hackett both grounded out against new Lion pitcher Shane Tarble. That sent the game to the fifth still at 8-0 Mattoon.
It would be in the top of the fifth when the Lions finally broke through in the hit column. After Thompson struck out, Keim hit a bouncing ball on the infield that he was able to leg out for an infield single. Rocco Giannavola came on to pinch hit for Stuckey but struck out. Tarble grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
An RBI single for Walk in the bottom of the fifth put another run across to make it 9-0. After Marshall went down 1-2-3 in the sixth and Wetzel reached base on an error on which a runner scored, the game came to an early end, giving Mattoon the six-inning shutout win 10-0.
JV vs. Tuscola, Thursday, March 26
It was a warm, windy day Thursday for the Marshall Lions JV team as they played host to the Tuscola Warriors out at Hornbrook Field. Tuscola pitching had trouble finding the strike zone throughout the course of the game, and when they did Marshall took advantage and came up with hits.
You don’t often see a game where one team draws in the double digits in walks for a game, but that was the case for the Lions in this game. The game got lop-sided to the point of stopping in the fourth inning, as the Lions were victorious 18-0.
Max Welsh took the mound to start for Marshall. He got Warrior leadoff hitter Severin Steinert to ground out back to him on the mound, then Welsh gave up an infield hit to Tyler Pierre. He was able to retire the side from there when Will Gibson lined out to right and Nixon Steinert popped out to the shortstop.
The bottom of the first became indicative of where this game was going. Eli Thompson led the game off with a walk, and Rocco Giannavola followed suit with a walk of his own. Thompson then came around to score on an RBI single for Welsh.
From there Cole Thompson, Preston Welsh, and Mason Ellington all drew walks to load the bases for D.J. Williams. Williams and then Bryson Garling drew bases loaded walks to bring in two more runs. Evan Hilderbrand struck out for the first out, then Eli Thompson came back up and drove in another run on an RBI groundout.
Later in his second plate appearance in the inning, Cole Thompson drove in two on a two-run RBI single. In total, 16 batters came up and scored10 runs on just two hits, making it 10-0 Lions after just an inning of play.
Tuscola went down in order in the top of the second, then Marshall scored eight more times in the bottom of the second to make it 18-0. The only scoreless inning for the Lions would be in the bottom of the third, though they did leave a couple of runners on base.
Tuscola didn’t get another runner on base until the top of the fourth when Nixon Steinert reached base on an error. Welsh got the final out of the game with a strikeout of Sam Bubb, bringing the game to an early end and giving Marshall the 18-0 four inning victory.