by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
The Marion baseball team played two solid games at the Manton Wood Bat Tournament on Saturday. The Eagles took down tournament host Manton 11-3 in the first round, but dropped a 5-4 10 inning battle in the championship to Frankfort.
In the opener, Braden Prielipp got the win, tossing three innings and giving up two runs on three hits and three strikeouts. Gavin Prielipp pitched in relief for two innings and gave up one run on one hit and three strikeouts.
Mason Salisbury had a triple, double and three RBI, Aadin Yowell had two hits, Cole Meyer had one hit and two RBI and Keegan Baldwin and Tucker Sigafoose smacked one hit and one RBI apiece.
In the championship, the game was tied 1-1 through eight innings. Starting in the ninth, the teams opted to use international tie breaker rules, using a runner at second base to start the inning. Both teams scored a run in the ninth, Marion scored two runs in the top of the 10th but Frankfort won the game with three runs in the bottom half.
“This was a great game and we just didn’t have enough to finish it off but what a great game and I love how we competed all day we did a lot of little things right and battled out of jams all day,” head coach Chad Grundy said.” This was the best game Mason Salisbury has ever pitched and all the guys played great defense all day.”
Salisbury pitched eight innings and gave up one run on six hits, 15 strikeouts and two walks.
Sigafoose and Meyer had two hits apiece and with one hit each was Weston Cox, Salisbury, G. Prielipp and Hayden Ostrowski.
On Thursday, April 28 Marion hosted Frankfort for a pair of non-league games. Frankfort won game one 11-9, though the Eagles got their revenge in game two, with a 4-1 victory.
Sigafoose took the loss in the opener, pitching four innings and giving up two earned runs while striking out five.
“We struggled with a few walks and errors but still had a chance with the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning,” Grundy said.
Yowell had a good game at the plate, getting three hits and three RBI, Salisbury had three hits and one RBI, Cox added two hits and three RBI and Keegan Baldwin and G. Prielipp had one hit apiece.
In game two, Yowell got the win, as he went five innings and gave up zero earned runs and struck out five. Salisbury pitched the final inning for the save, striking out two batters.
G. Prielipp had three hits and two RBI, Yowell had one hit and one RBI and B. Prielipp and Alex Johnson had one hit apiece.
“We played much Better in game two and Aadin pitched a great game,” Grundy said.
Marion (6-2 overall) hosted Mason County Eastern on Thursday and heads to Mesick on Monday.