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 After getting rocked to end the first game, Marshall's pitching stabilized when John Jasper tossed nearly five solid inning to win the nightcap. [Click to enlarge] |
Marshall entered the top of the seventh inning with a four-run lead in the first game of its Boonville Babe Ruth Senior League twinbill, but emerged down by an 18-7 count after Bank of America uncorked a 15-run assault. The its credit, the team which is customarily considered the Owls -- but is as nameless as a Clint Eastwood character in a "spaghetti" Western -- regrouped to take the nightcap, 8-5.
There was no indication trouble was brewing in the opener until the final act. After B of A scored twice in the top of the first on singles by Zach Ruffel and Cody Fletcher, after Shaun Cook's can-of-corn fly ball to center field was misplayed into a double, Marshall tallied four tuns in the bottom half of the frame.
Ethan Williams walked, swiped second and came in on Josh Glassmaker's single. A hit batter and walk loaded the bases, a run scored on a fielder's choice and Andy Dautenhahn knocked in a pair with a single.
Matthew Pace's lead-off single led to a Marshall run in the second, but the Boonville club loaded the bases with nobody out in the three on singles by Kyle Purvis, Cook and Ruffel. Josh Glassmaker fanned the next batter, but catcher Michael Sartor's snap throw to third base -- although in time to pick off the runner -- went through Mike Crim's glove.
That didn't bother Glassmaker, who retired 13 straight hitters -- the first five on whiffs and the last when Crim made a brilliant snag of a hot shot to the hot corner. In the seventh, though, the pitch count had worn out Glassmaker -- having chucked footballs during the previous three days at a quarterback camp in Dubuque, Iowa, where Owls all-state pitcher Paul Wayne Thomas remained behind.
Two walks, an error, Cook's RBI single and the first in a pair of two-run doubles by Ruffel began the blitz. Bank of America banged out six hits and Marshall committed three errors -- with three pitchers contributing to the disaster with seven walks and two hit batters.
During that one half-stanza alone, Marshall's team earned-run average climbed from 3.01 to 3.66. If it had been a high school game, the 15 runs would have ranked in the top 10 scored in an inning in Missouri history (20 is the record).
What was encouraging, though, was that Marshall's players didn't allow one bad frame to ruin the entire night. Bank of America's defense in the second contest allowed six unearned runs with nine errors, three coming as Marshall scored three times in the bottom of the first -- the only hits a Williams double to begin the rally and Austin Lamparter's RBI single near the end.
Kodi Phillips knocked in two runs with a double as three Boonville boots led to three runs in the second.
Bank of America (3-3) made a comeback bid in the third. Matt Ivy drove in a run with a single and three more scored on back-to-back doubles by Cook and Ruffel.
When Ruffel banged the right-field fence with an RBI double in the fourth, B of A was within a run of catching up. It filled the bases with two outs in the fifth when Marshall turned to Phillips for relief.
He got the job done, and without the tension created during a typical Jason Isringhausen save. Phillips fanned the first batter he faced and didn't surrender a hit over the next two innings -- while Marshall tallied two insurance runs in the fifth on four free passes and a muffed grounder -- while striking out four.
Phillips was helped by the errorless Marshall defense, which included leaping grabs in right field by Andrew Bridges on back-to-back sixth-inning plays which would have made Gold Glover Jim Edmonds proud.
Williams had two hits, swiped four bases and scored four runs at the top of the line-up for Marshall (5-7) -- which is off a week before going to Harley Park for a twinbill Thursday.