By Thomas Duzan
On Monday the Marshall Lions made their way down to Newton to take on the Newton Eagles, who came into the game at 15-2 on the season. The first three innings saw the Lions hold their own with the Eagles. Then in the fourth inning Newton showed why their record is where it is, and the game came to an end in the sixth with Newton winning 12-2.
The game started off well enough for Marshall. Branson Maskell led the game off reaching base on an error. However, a baserunning mistake resulted in Maskell being picked off for the first out. Tucker Osborn then got on with a double. Garrett Pugh then flew out to right, but then Osborn scored on an RBI single for Reed Ramey.
Eli Thompson came up next looking to bring in another run but grounded back to the pitcher for the third out. Ramey went to the mound as the starting pitcher for Marshall and ran into some trouble early on. He gave up a leadoff hit to Quincy Fulton and walked David Ferguson.
Fulton got to second base looking to take third, but a good throw to third got him out for the first out. Ramey then got Drake Wolf to pop out for the second out. Ferguson would come in to score on an RBI double for Dominic Baltzell. Ramey kept the damage at a minimum when Gavin Meinhart grounded into a fielder’s choice. So the game went to the second inning tied at 1-1.
Max Welsh got a single in the top of the second inning, but otherwise the side was retired. Ayden Houpt and Gavan Propst grounded out, then Liam Keim lined out. The bottom of the second saw the Eagles take the lead and not look back.
Carson Barthelme singled and later scored on an RBI double for Maddox Horner. Following an intentional walk of Fulton, Ferguson struck out. Two runs then came in to score on a fly ball hit by Wolf in which the ball was dropped. Those three runs made it 4-1 Newton going to the third.
An alert bit of baserunning gave the Lions their second run in the third. Maskell led off grounding out, but Osborn got on with his second hit of the game. An intentional walk to Pugh put runners at first and second with one out for Ramey.
He would ground into a fielder’s choice, on which Osborn caught the Newton defense unaware of him and snuck across the plate to score a run. The bottom of the third would be one of the few innings where the Eagles were kept off the scoreboard. Shane Tarble came on to pitch with two outs and struck out Jackson James to send the game to the fourth still 4-2 Newton.
It was unfortunately for Marshall a quiet top of the fourth. Houpt, Tarble and Propst all went down with strikeouts. Then as stated before, the bottom of the fourth was the inning where the game was blown open by Newton. Fulton walked, then got into scoring position and scored on an RBI single for Ferguson.
Wolf flew out and then a run came in to score on an RBI single for Baltzell. Reed Tharp grounded into a fielder’s choice, then after that, six straight runners reached base before the third out. In total 12 Newton batters plated seven runners to blow the game open to make it 11-2 going to the fifth.
Maskell drew a walk with one out and Pugh walked with two outs, but both were stranded on base when Ramey struck out. Baltzell got a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth, but otherwise the side was retired. The third out came when Barthelme hit a line drive to right field, but a leaping catch from Thompson kept the game going to the sixth still at 11-2.
Tarble got on base with a two-out walk in the top of the sixth but got no further than first base. Fulton hit a ground ball to third with one out and a runner on base, but an error enabled that runner to score and bring an early end to the game with Newton going on to the six-inning run-rule win by the 12-2 final.