MARSHALL, Minn. – The Marshall A’s split a pair of games this weekend and in the process secured a spot in the Region 4C Tournament that begins on Aug. 5-6 in Milroy.
On Friday night, the A’s locked up the region spot with a 4-1 win at Wabasso. With the score tied at 1-1 in the eighth, Connor Neubeck hammered a lead-off triple and scored moments later on a single by Seth Resnick. Following a bunt single by Talan Plante, Ryan VanMoer drilled a single to left field that was misplayed by the outfielder to allow courtesy runner Cooper Mensink and Plante to score and push the lead to 4-1.
Mitchell Bouwman earned the win in relief tossing three innings and allowing one unearned run with four strikeouts and one walk.
A’s starting pitcher Charlie Jacobson was outstanding, firing six shutout innings with 12 strikeouts, three walks and two hits.
Peyton Grant had two hits for the A’s, while Chase Douglas, Matt Hmielewski, AJ Toulouse, Plante, VanMoer, Resnick, Neubeck, and each finished with one hit.
In the regular season finale on Sunday, the A’s suffered a hard-fought 5-2 setback to Bird Island, which tied for the regular season Corn Belt League title with Raymond.
Douglas led off the first inning for the A’s with a double and later scored on a sac fly by Neubeck to give Marshall a 1-0 advantage.
The Bullfrogs would take the lead with a three-run third inning off A’s starting pitcher Logan Tomasek.
The A’s rallied in the seventh with Hunter Wienhoff smacking a lead-off single and moving to second on a sac bunt by Jordan Mernaugh. Moments later, Wienhoff would come around to score on a throwing error by the catcher to make the score 3-2 after seven innings.
The A’s had a big threat to score in the eighth with one-out walks to Grant and Hmielewski and a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Bird Island however escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts.
Bird Island would add big insurance runs in the ninth scoring two runs on three walks and a passed ball to make the score 5-2.
Marshall had one last chance in the ninth, loading the bases with three, two-out walks, but a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch ended the game.
Douglas, VanMoer, Toulouse, Neubeck and Wienhoff each had one hit in the loss.
Tomasek tossed a strong five innings and allowed three runs on five hits with three strikeouts.
The A’s finished the regular season with a record of 16-8 overall and placed fourth in the Corn Belt League standings.
Marshall will now turn its attention to the region playoffs starting on Aug. 5 in Milroy. The A’s will play at 10 a.m. versus the No. 1 seed from the County Line League. The official tournament bracket will be released soon.