Article by Steven Hendrixson, MHS Student Writer
On Wednesday, the Marshall Cubs faced off at home against the Charleston Trojans for their 10th game of the season. With what was a great initial start to the season for the Cubs had quickly become a slew of dominant performances with a combination of great pitching prowess and base runners to turn into something truly special to watch.
They would blow out every team they came across by at least 4 runs or more. The Cubs come into the game 9-0 after a 16-1 obliteration against Red Hill and look to push their win streak to ten games and keep their undefeated season alive.
Marshall started off with great defense in the 1st, with starting pitcher Kole Nickles striking out two as well as second baseman Brockton Phillips grounding out one.
Charleston would draw first blood in the second, with multiple pitching errors from Kole Nickles allowing four walks in a span of four plays, plus a double on a line drive towards left fielder Jayse that would result in the Trojans going up 2-0 against the Cubs in the early game. Another strikeout by Kole Nickles, and two groundouts against Charleston against shortstop Augy Schneider would grind Charleston’s run to a halt.
Marshall would get on the board in the bottom of the 2nd after a triple from Kale Platt and a subsequent wild hit from Easton Huffington, allowing Kale Platt to run it home for a run, putting the score to 2-1.
Charleston would gradually gain ground ever so slightly against the Cubs in the next two innings, scoring a run in the 3rd after a trojan singles off a ground ball to first and then reaching second off an error in the next play and stealing the next two bases to score.
Charleston would score another run in the top of the 4th after doubling on a line drive followed by a single to right fielder Easton Huffington, resulting in yet another run. Putting Charleston up 4-2 against the Cubs.
The bottom 4th would be the tide turner for Marshall, through a complete defensive breakdown of the Trojans pitchers; the Cubs would go on a complete rampage, scoring six runs on six consecutive plays with six different Cubs players. The biggest blow in the inning was a double by Nickles that drove in two; while the icing on the cake would be the 6th, final run as the result of a monster hit by Kale Platt, almost resulting in a home run also allowing Cooper Bays to double off the fly ball and score after initially singling on a line drive in the previous play. Just like that, Marshall would go up 8-4 for the game.
The 5th, 6th, and 7th innings would end up turning into a static pitchers’ duel against the Trojans and Cubs. A dropped 3rd strike, along with a strikeout by Easton Huffington and a fly out to first baseman Cooper Bays resulted in the final nail in the Trojans coffin, winning 8-4. This resulted in the Cub’s 10th straight win of the season.
Easton Huffington earned the win for the Cubs. The hurler gave up just one hit and zero runs over four innings, striking out five and walking one. Nickles stepped on the bump first for Marshall, just giving up four hits and four runs over three innings, striking out three and walking six.
The Cubs piled up a total of ten hits in the game.
The Cubs bump their record up to 10-0 for the season, where they continue to look like a top team going into the IESA tournament and one of the true championship contenders.
The Cubs ended up beating Casey-Westfield Saturday, September 12th, beating the Braves 4-0.
The Cubs will play Martinsville on Monday, September 14th.