WILLMAR, Minn. – The Marshall A’s recorded a big road Corn Belt League victory on Sunday afternoon defeating Willmar, 3-1. The victory avenges a loss to Willmar in Marshall on June 18.
Marshall is looking to secure a top four spot in the Corn Belt League final standings which assures a berth in the Region 4C playoffs starting on Aug. 5-6 in Milroy. The A’s, which have two league games remaining, are currently in fourth-place in the Corn Belt League standings.
The 5-8 seeds in the final Corn Belt League standing will play a four-team single-elimination league tournament on July 28-29. The winner of the four-team tournament would then play a single-elimination game versus a team from the County Line League on Aug. 2.
In the win over Willmar on Sunday, Marshall starting pitcher, Hunter Wienhoff, was solid once again, tossing the complete game victory, scattering eight hits with seven strikeouts.
Matt Hmielewski started the A’s offense in the first inning smacking a two-out, two-run double to score Chase Douglas and Peyton Grant.
Marshall pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second inning with Josh Kraft drilling a two-out triple before Douglas hit a hot-smash past the second baseman to score Kraft.
The A’s nearly added to the lead in the fourth inning, but had a runner thrown out at the plate following a single by Logan Tomasek. The A’s also stranded two runnerson base in the sixth and seventh innings.
The Rails put together a rally in the ninth, loading the bases with two outs, but a ground out closed the game.
Douglas had two hits for the A’s, while AJ Toulouse, Seth Resnick, Grant, Kraft, Hmielewski and Tomasek each collected one hit.
Marshall, now 15-6 overall, including 9-5 in CBL action, returns to the diamond on Wednesday, July 19, with a non-league game at Minneota starting at 7:30.
The A’s return to league play at Wabasso on Friday night at 7:30, before closing the regular season hosting Bird Island on Sunday, July 23, with first pitch at 6 p.m.
MARSHALL A'S (3) AT WILLMAR RAILS (1)
MARSHALL A'S AB R H BI WILLMAR RAILS AB R H BI
Chase Douglas 4 1 2 1 Zach Reierson 5 0 2 1
AJ Toulouse 4 0 1 0 Sam Etterman 4 0 1 0
Peyton Grant 3 1 1 0 Christian Lessman 4 0 0 0
Seth Resnick 3 0 1 0 Jack Baumgart 3 0 2 0
Matt Hmielewski 3 0 1 2 Riley Lessman 2 0 0 0
Ryan Schwagel 4 0 0 0 Mason Thole 1 0 0 0
Logan Tomasek 4 0 1 0 Ashton Gregory 4 0 1 0
Zach Olsen 4 0 0 0 Jack Thompson 3 0 0 0
Josh Kraft 4 1 1 0 Wade Fischer 2 0 0 0
Cullen Gregory 2 0 0 0
Caleb Owens 3 1 1 0
Jordan Steffer 1 0 1 0
TOTALS 33 3 8 3 TOTALS 34 1 8 1
MARSHALL A'S 210 000 000 -- 3
WILLMAR RAILS 001 000 000 -- 1
LOB--MARSHALL A'S 9, WILLMAR RAILS 9. ERR--Josh Kraft.
2B--Peyton Grant, Matt Hmielewski. 3B--Josh Kraft.
HBP--Chase Douglas. SACB--AJ Toulouse, Riley Lessman.
SB--Peyton Grant, Caleb Owens.
MARSHALL A'S IP H R ER BB SO HR
Hunter Wienhoff (W) 9.00 8 1 1 2 7 0
WILLMAR RAILS
Jayden Dierenfeld (L) 6.00 7 3 3 3 4 0
Patrick Courtney 3.00 1 0 0 1 2 0