A highly competitive home opener gave way to an error-plagued performance befitting of a youthful roster, and Benton Community claimed both games over the Marshalltown baseball team in Friday’s Battle of the Bobcats, 5-2 and 16-0.
A year after getting 10-runned twice by Benton, Marshalltown (1-2) made a concerted effort to fight the visiting Bobcats to the bitter end of the first game. Marshalltown surrendered a pair of unearned runs that helped Benton grab a 4-0 lead, but MHS countered with a pair of its own to get within 4-2 after five innings.
Zander Stupp reached on a dropped fly ball and scored two outs later on a misplayed grounder off the bat of JJ Schoenfelder with two outs in the fourth, and Tayven Dutton singled and scored on an RBI single by Caleb Kusserow.
The host Bobcats got two more hits and a walk over the final two innings, but the run-scoring hit never arrived and relief pitcher Grant Valesky did the rest by striking out four of the seven batters he faced.
Stupp gave Marshalltown a strong performance on the mound, allowing seven hits and four runs — two earned — with three strikeouts. Dutton allowed three hits and one run over two innings, also not walking a batter.
“Stupp throws strikes, that’s the biggest thing, and we have an idea of who will come in next and rotate from there,” said MHS head coach Colton Hanke. “Tonight solidified who would come in after and we got some different guys out there on the mound and now we’ve got a better idea heading into five games next week.”
But Marshalltown’s bats only came up with five hits in the loss, leaving seven runners stranded. Sam Greazel, Dutton, Kusserow, Dale Greene and Schoenfelder each had a single for MHS, while Benton countered with 10 hits in the win.
Kaleb Hupke pitched five innings, allowing two unearned runs on four hits while striking out eight for the win.
The second game started with struggles, and Marshalltown never recovered. Four errors in the first four batters paved the way for Benton to plate six runs in the first at-bat, breaking the young Bobcats’ spirits.
Benton got six runs in the first, five in the third, three in the fourth and two in the fifth, while right-hander Grady Frese threw a no-hitter in the 16-0, five-inning setback.
“The biggest thing going from game one to game two was that when something [bad] happened, we were able to minimize that damage and keep us in there,” Hanke said. “In game two, that didn’t really happen so you get the result we have.
“In game one there were moments we were able to stop it and that’s what we did and that’s what kept us in there.”
Marshalltown finished with nine errors in the second game, and pitchers struggled to find the strike zone. MHS walked two batters and hit six more, giving up more free bases than Benton needed. The visitors tallied 13 hits and cruised behind Frese’s performance on the mound.
Frese walked four and struck out eight, needing just 79 pitches to get the job done.
“We can try to turn up the velocity more [in practice] but about half the lineup’s young and they really haven’t been in this position before,” Hanke said. “We’ve got guys that are eighth-graders starting and we’ve got guys coming in off the bench who are eighth-graders and freshmen and sophomores, so you’ve just gotta keep giving them reps and hopefully they buy into it to where they want to have more pitches thrown to them and get back out there.
“They will probably get knocked out the first time so it’s just a matter of how they come back.”
Sam Greazel took the loss for MHS in the second game, giving up seven hits eight runs — three earned. Greene made his varsity pitching debut and went 1 1/3 frames, and Luke Stalzer got the final five outs.
Benton didn’t strike out once in the second game, meaning more balls in play for a young Marshalltown defense.
MHS is back at home on Tuesday with a 5 p.m. game against Newton, and a doubleheader at Des Moines Roosevelt follows on Wednesday. The Bobcats travel to Mason City for a twinbill on Thursday.
