The Marshalltown baseball team was again stifled on the road, getting just one run on five hits in a doubleheader sweep Wednesday at the hands of Des Moines East.
The host Scarlets captured the first game 4-0 behind a combined two-hit shutout from pitchers Dylan Post and Seth Cipale, and Johnathon Giefer gave up an early run but dealt with the Bobcats from there for a complete-game, six-inning victory in the nightcap, 11-1.
East (8-13) won for the eighth time in its last 10 games while sending Marshalltown (1-14) to its 14th loss in a row. The most constant bugaboo for the Bobcats bit them again, as an offense averaging just 1.8 runs per game was plagued by a combined 25 strikeouts.
The MHS defense was ticketed for six errors in the twinbill and couldn’t make up the difference offensively.
Marshalltown junior Sam Greazel pitched all six innings in the opening game, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, four walks and one hit batsman while striking out seven. East scored single runs in the first, second, third and fifth, but Greazel withstood the big inning each time.
Post struck out 12 and walked three over six innings and Cipale struck out two of the three batters he faced to close it out.
Greazel got a two-out single in the top of the first but was picked off, and eighth-grader Garrett Thede hit a two-out single in the fifth. Tayven Dutton and Greazel were issued back-to-back two-out walks by Post in the sixth, but nothing became of the Bobcats’ scoring threats.
Thede took the ball for Game 2 and held East to two runs over five innings before for the Scarlets got to him in the sixth, scoring nine runs on eight hits and two errors. A bases-loaded triple by Kingston Kost was the decisive blow. In relief, freshman Gavin Freiberg got a fly ball out that allowed Tayte Warren to score the game-ending run.
The Bobcats held a brief lead in the nightcap, scoring in the top of the first. With one out, Dutton singled and stole second before Greazel walked. Senior Caleb Kusserow followed with an RBI single before Giefer got the last two outs on strikes.
Kusserow was one of only three Bobcats to reach base the rest of the way, but he was thrown out trying to advance from first to third on a sacrifice bunt by Zander Stupp. Greazel added a single in the sixth.
“Overall we had chances in both games to have different outcomes,” said MHS head coach Colton Hanke. “However, we had a couple of mistakes on the basepaths and we didn’t handle the ball cleanly enough. Greazel and Thede had good outings that gave us a good chance to win, but we fell short.
“We hope to build off of tonight and carry it into tomorrow at Fort Dodge.”
Marshalltown closes out a seven-game road swing with tonight’s 5 p.m. doubleheader in Fort Dodge.