By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield baseball team has suddenly found a winning formula.
After starting the season 0-6 in nonconference play, the Tigers racked up 12 hits and beat Wisconsin Rapids 8-3 for their second straight Wisconsin Valley Conference victory Friday at Jack Hackman Field.
Elliot Ashbeck picked up the win for the Tigers, allowing five walks and five hits in five innings of work. He struck out five and also went 3-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and three RBIs to lead Marshfield’s offensive attack.
Brett Baur and Sully Luepke each went 2-for-4 with a double, and Baur had two RBIs for the Tigers (2-6).
“I was really pleased with the way we battled up there offensively,” Marshfield coach Mark Zee said. “We’ve got guys 1-through-9 that keep battling, we’ve got relatively good speed and our top five hitters are hot right now and our other guys are starting to pick it up.”
Back-to-back two-out doubles by Joe Schuerman and Gunnar Smith in the first inning gave the Raiders a quick 1-0 lead against Ashbeck.
Marshfield led off the first and second innings with hits, but the runners were quickly erased on double plays. Brian Brost led off the third with a single and this time the Tigers were able to get to Wisconsin Rapids pitcher Trevor Nicholson.
Luepke knocked in Brost on a groundout to tie the game at 1-1 and Ashbeck followed with a ringing double to left-center field to score Brendon Voss and give the Tigers the lead.
Josh Lutz added an RBI single to give Marshfield a 3-1 lead.
“We came off a real good game on Tuesday and were swinging the bats well,” Ashbeck said. “We hit into some unlucky double plays the first two innings and we knew things would start to fall our way. They started to in that third inning and we just kept rolling and playing good defense and got the win.”
Rapids closed to 3-2 in the fifth without getting the ball out of the infield. Bobby Blum walked, went to second on an error by Ashbeck and took third on a balk. He scored on a groundout by Joey Fredrick.
The Tigers responded in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Baur delivered a two-run double to left and after a strikeout, Colin Telin had a pinch-hit single to score courtesy runner Kendall Lisiecki to put Marshfield up 6-2.
Marshfield added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh when Ashbeck knocked in Nick Anderson and Luepke with a double.
Luepke replaced Ashbeck on the mound after a leadoff single in the sixth and struck out three, allowing an unearned run in the seventh, but finished off the victory.
“We had a rough start, but we’ve been doing all the right things in practice and once we’ve seen some more live pitching, we’ve been swinging the bats better,” Ashbeck said. “We’re a good team. We’re starting to play our game, play defense and things are starting to go our way.”
Marshfield hosts Rhinelander on Tuesday and Wausau West on Thursday in a pair of Wisconsin Valley Conference games next week. Both games start at 4:30 p.m. at Jack Hackman Field.
Tigers 8, Raiders 3
Wisconsin Rapids 100 010 1 – 3 6 2
Marshfield 003 032 x – 8 12 3
WP: Elliot Ashbeck. LP: Trevor Nicholson.
SO: WR, Nicholson 2, Josh Coyer 4; M, Ashbeck 5, Sully Luepke 3. BB: WR, Nicholson 3, Coyer 0; Ashbeck 5, Luepke 2.
Top hitters: WR, Joe Schuerman 2-for-2, 2B; Gunnar Smith 2B. M, Ashbeck 3-for-4, 2 2Bs, 2 runs, 3 RBIs; Luepke 2-for-4, 2B; Brett Baur 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBIs.
Records: Wisconsin Rapids 1-3, 1-1 WVC; Marshfield 2-6, 2-0 WVC.
