By Thomas Duzan
Last Friday the Marshall Lions returned home, splitting a couple of games on the road earlier in the week, to play host to the Sullivan Redskins out at Hornbrook Field. It was a well-played game for both sides with pitching and defense being the name of the game. Despite not doing much in the first four innings with the bats, the Lions added one run an inning in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, the last of which was the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to win it by the score of 3-2.
It was Reed Ramey’s turn to be the starting pitcher for Marshall in this game. He got off to a shaky start, giving up two straight hits to Marshall Robison and Fallon Rose to start. Brady Stollard bunted the runners over with a sacrifice bunt. Robison came in to score on an RBI groundout for Gavin Wade. Ramey kept the damage there as Caden Saul grounded out to end the further threat.
The first two Lion batters were set down in the bottom of the inning, as Maskell popped out and Gavan Propst struck out. Up next came Garrett Pugh, who was first pitch swinging and picked up the first hit of the game. From there, Ramey drew a walk. They made it to second and third but were stranded when Liam Keim grounded out to send the game to the second with Sullivan up 1-0.
Sullivan started the second off with Zaden Hussong getting a leadoff single. After that, Ramey settled in and got Landon Elder to line out to right field. Next was Christian Ogle, who grounded one back to Ramey on the mound, who started with a throw to Maskell at second and then to first for a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Marshall went down without much noise in their half of the second, as Eli Thompson grounded out, Tucker Osborn popped out and Shane Tarble flew out to send the game to the third with Sullivan still on top 1-0.
Ramey gave up an infield single to Kolton Wiley to start the third. But Ramey settled in from there and retired the side in order as Robison popped out and then Rose and Stollard both struck out. Max Welsh and Maskell struck out to start the bottom of the third, then Propst got on base with a walk. He soon after looked to take second but got a bad jump at first and was thrown out trying to steal. So after three innings it was still 1-0 Sullivan.
Ramey continued a trend of inducing weak contact against the Sullivan hitters in the fourth and retired the hitters in order also. He got Wade and Saul to ground out and struck out Hussong for the third out. Pugh led off the bottom of the fourth and got on base with an adventurous single. He hit a pop up on the right side of the infield but the wind played a bit of havoc with the second baseman leading to it dropping in short right field.
He later got around to third but would unfortunately be stranded there as Ramey and Keim both struck out, and Thompson grounded out to send the game to the fifth with the Lions still trailing 1-0.
The top of the fifth saw Sullivan get on the board once again. Elder was hit by a pitch, then Ogle grounded back to the pitcher. Elder would come around to score on an RBI single for Rose. Marshall was able to counter back in the bottom of the fifth with their first run of the contest.
Osborn led the inning off with a walk. Though Tarble struck out, Osborn made his way into scoring position and came in to score on an RBI single for Welsh. The deficit was cut in half as it was now 2-1 going to the sixth.
The top of the sixth saw Pugh came on to pitch in relief of Ramey and got the first two outs in the form of a strikeout of Wade and a groundout for Saul. Hussong then reached base on an error, and soon after took second. He then looked to steal third but Propst made a good throw down to get the third out.
Pugh grounded out to start the inning, but then Ramey got on with a walk. Then Keim drew a walk of his own. Ramey later advanced into scoring position and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game. That made it a 2-2 game going to the seventh.
Pugh gave up a leadoff single to Elder to start the seventh. Then, he got Ogle to hit a sharp grounder to Maskell at shortstop, who threw to Osborn at first for one out. Osborn made a throw to first from his knees that just did beat the runner to first to turn a flashy double play. A strikeout of Wiley kept Sullivan off the scoreboard.
Welsh led off the bottom of the seventh legging out a grounder on the infield with an infield single. Maskell bunted him over into scoring position after that on a sacrifice bunt. Walks to Propst and Pugh loaded the bases up for Ramey. All he needed was a simple base hit through the infield and that’s exactly what happened. That scored Welsh for the winning run and gave the Lions the 3-2 walk-off victory.