Marshalltown baseball topples Waterloo East in eight-inning thriller
Bennett Ricken scored from third on a wild pitch as Marshalltown baseball defeated Waterloo East, 2-1, in eight innings at Marshalltown High School on Monday.
The win ends a 17-game losing streak for the Bobcats, salvaging a split with East after the Trojans won 6-3 in the opener.
“We don’t really have anything to lose so we’ve got to be able to know there’s always a chance for us,” MHS head coach Colton Hanke said. “Our backs aren’t against the wall, we just have to be able to get through each game, game by game.”
Gavin Freiberg drew a leadoff walk to start the eighth. After a couple of strikeouts, Sam Greazel singled and a Zander Stupp grounder was misplayed by the East infield to load the bases.
An 0-2 pitch to Dale Greene skipped off the dirt and Ricken, pinch-running for Freiberg, slid into home for the game-winning run.
“We just had to be able to work counts, and then just hopefully get on somehow,” Hanke said. “And when there’s balls in the dirt like that, we’ve just got to capitalize.”
Zander Stupp twirled a gem in regulation, holding East to no hits through 6 2/3 innings and exiting after the seventh with only one total hit, one unearned run and seven strikeouts to just one walk and one hit batter.
“He was able to keep them off-balance and limit those free bases,” Hanke said. “We have to make sure we’re throwing strikes so our defense can stay active and not be flat-footed.”
East had runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh. The Bobcats appeared to be out of trouble on a grounder from Jonah Helmrichs but an infield error allowed East to scratch across a run for a 1-0 lead.
Stupp got a called strike three to get out of the half-inning and avoid any further damage.
“We got those first few outs, and that’s huge,” Hanke said. “If we don’t have those, we probably are not in the position to wash [the error] that quickly. The kids responded really well there.”
Marshalltown responded in the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff triple from Greazel, who came home two batters later on a Greene RBI single.
The Bobcats had runners on second and third with two outs but East snagged a liner from Garrett Thede to end the threat and force extra innings.
In the eighth, East loaded the bases on reliever Sam Greazel, including an untimely infield error by the Bobcats, but again MHS responded and got the force out at second on a grounder to keep it at 1-1.
“We knew we had a chance in game one, but it was a case of how we would respond in game two when it was zero-zero and nothing mattered in game one,” Hanke said. “We came out a little bit sluggish, but once we got 1-2-3 [inning], 1-2-3, we got more and more life.
“Stupp gave us a great chance tonight with Greazel in relief, and we got some big hits from the guys at the top of our lineup.”
A four-run third inning was the difference maker in Game 1 for East. Greene got the Bobcats out to a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single but the Trojans manufactured the runs on the back of two hits, two errors and a hit batter to build a 4-1 lead after the top of the third.
Marshalltown was within 4-3 by the end of four innings on RBI hits for Stupp and Caleb Kusserow, but East got a run each in the sixth and seventh innings to keep the Bobcats away — Marshalltown was retired in order in the seventh.
Hanke appreciated how the Bobcats avoided letting that big inning get too big, a lesson that may well have carried over in confidence to game 2.
Marshalltown is back home on Wednesday for two games with Ottumwa.