The West Marshall Fusion scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to come from behind to beat the Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal Titans 5-2 in a Section 8A Baseball tournament loser-out game Saturday afternoon in Thief River Falls.
After four scoreless innings, West Marshall was finally able to get on the board, but they did it without getting a hit. Cooper Clausen led off with a walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Clausen was caught in between second and third base and decided to try to take third base. The throw was dropped at third and Clausen was safe and it turned out to be a costly error as Clausen scored on a balk to give West Marshall a 1-0 lead without a hit in the game. “Cooper has been waiting to get his chance and came in today and had some big at-bats for us,” said Fusion Coach Dustin Grabowska. “He took advantage of his opportunity and helped us out today.”
Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal answered in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ryker Ellingworth led off with a double. Drew Jacobson followed with an rbi single to tie the game at 1-1. The Titans Conner Nelson followed with a single to score another run to take a 2-1 lead through five innings.
In the top of the seventh inning, Cooper Clausen got things going again for West Marshall when he was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Nick Winge had a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move Clausen over to second base. Will McGlynn singled and stole second base and runners were on the corners with one out. Jackson Kekke hit a slow roller to the shortstop and the throw to first was off the mark and rolled to the fence and two runs scored to give the Fusion a 3-2 lead. Demetrius Oberg followed with a walk and a run scored on a wild pitch for a 4-2 lead. “That was big to get those runs,” said Coach Grabowska. “We were able to get guys on and found a way to score and getting the extra runs were huge.” Aiden Anderson hit a double off the base of the left-center field fence and runners were at second and third base. Oberg scored on another wild pitch and West Marshall took a 5-2 lead.
NCE/UH had a great start to the bottom of the seventh inning when Drew Jacobson and Dawson Bjerke singled. Jacobson was out on a fielder’s choice for the first out of the inning. Jackson Woinarowicz struck out the next batter before getting the third out on a flare to the shortstop Will McGlynn who made a snowcone grab for the final out of the game and a 5-2 victory. “This is a big win and I am happy for the guys,” said Coach Grabowska. “We will get ready for another tough opponent on Tuesday.”
West Marshall improves to 12-8 on the year and will take on Ada-Borup-West on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. in another loser-out game. KROX will have the game on the air with a 1:30 p.m. pregame show.
NCE/UH ends their season with a 12-7 record.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| West Marshall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| NCE/UH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Jackson Woinarowicz – WM | 7.0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Drew Jacobson – NCE/UH | 6.1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| Ian Jacobson – NCE/UH | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
For West Marshall –
Aiden Anderson – 1 for 3, double, walk
Will McGlynn – 1 for 4, run, stolen base
Jackson Kekke – 1 for 4, run, stolen base
For NCE/UH –
Drew Jacobson – 3 for 3, run, rbi, rbi
Conner Nelson – 2 for 4
Aiden Flaten – 1 for 2, walk
