By Thomas Duzan
On a warm, sunny Wednesday the Marshall Lions made their way up to Bismarck-Henning for the Regional semifinal game in which they faced the St. Joseph-Ogden Spartans in the Bismarck-Henning regional. The Spartans were a high-powered offense and came into the game with a record of 33-2, ranked in the top 10 in the state.
The Lions kept it competitive for the first two innings, then St. Joe-Ogden showed when makes them so good. A seven-run inning brought an early end to the game and the Marshall season, as the game ended with a run-rule in the fifth by the score of 10-0.
Marshall did make a little bit of noise in the top of the first but were unable to do much of anything. Payton McGuire led the game off with a solid line-drive to left field, but it unfortunately found the left fielder’s glove. Tucker Osborn then grounded out back to the pitcher.
Garrett Pugh, bringing his new school record 12 home runs into the game, got the first hit of the contest with a double. However, Reed Ramey struck out to end the effort. It was Pugh who took the mound as the starting pitcher for Marshall and he worked the only 1-2-3 inning of the game.
He got leadoff hitter Logan Rosenthal to ground out, as well as Will Haley, then got a flyout to send the game to the second scoreless at 0-0.
Not much happened for the Lions in the second, as they went down in order. Liam Keim struck out, Eli Thompson grounded out and Max Welsh struck out. The Spartans got their first runner of the game with two outs in the bottom of the second when Cam Schlutter got on with a single. Cody McKinney then grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. So after two the game remained 0-0.
The top of the third would be when Marshall made the most noise at the plate. Though Branson Maskell and Gavan Propst both struck out, McGuire came up and knocked one through a hole to get on with a single. Osborn followed up by drawing a walk.
Pugh came up next and grounded one slowly to shortstop, but the throw would be wide of the bag at first and thus load the bases. However, Ramey’s groundout to second negated any further threat of Marshall scoring in the inning.
It was in the bottom of the third when St. Joe-Ogden got on the board for the first time. It started with a walk to Parker Fitch. Then Asher Kruger singled. Rosenthal came up next and reached base on an error to load up the bases for Haley.
He would bring two runs in on a two-run RBI single. It wouldn’t be until a fielder’s choice when the first out was registered. A strikeout of Finn Miller was the second and then McKinney grounded out, but not before the Spartans had three runs to make it 3-0 after three innings.
It would be a quiet top of the fourth for Marshall. Keim struck out, then Thompson flew out to center and Welsh hit a soft lineout to the shortstop. It was in the bottom of the fourth when the game went fully south for Marshall. Fitch was hit by a pitch to start, then Kruger flew out to Ayden Houpt, who came into the game to play right field as a defensive replacement.
From there, Rosenthal got on with a single, and Haley walked. A bases-clearing RBI double proved to be the moment of a momentum swing that went fully in St. Joe-Ogden's favor. A total of 11 batters came to the plate to score seven runs and make it a 10-0 deficit going to the fifth.
Marshall needed a run to extend the game in the fifth, but it wasn’t to be. Maskell flew out to center, Propst struck out and McGuire flew out to right field to bring an early end to the game, and the season. Despite the disappointment with how it played out, the season was marked with some good moments, including a couple of walk-off wins early on. The crowning of a new single-season home run king in Marshall baseball history also occurred with Garrett Pugh’s 12 dingers. Senior night saw the first career home run for Tucker Osborn as well.
Despite missing half the season with an injury sustained late in basketball season, Payton McGuire came back and looked like the star player he’s been for four years. The 10-0 final score brought Marshall to a final record of 10-20.