Baseball: Marquette comes back, holds on for 9-8 Saturday win over Hall

OTTAWA – The Hall Red Devils and Marquette Crusaders battled through the windy elements during their nonconference game Saturday afternoon at Masinelli Field and took advantage of some extra-base hits, with Marquette barely outhitting Hall in a 9-8 win.

The game originally was scheduled to be played in Spring Valley, but was moved because of wet field conditions.

“Both teams were able to put the bat on the ball,” Hall coach Tom Keegan said, “You saw that in the first couple of innings, when Marquette was able to get some scoring opportunities. They put the bat on the ball and scored some runs with two outs.”

Trailing 1-0 in the home half of the first inning, Marquette took advantage of three walks issued by Red Devils starter Peyton Dye. Carson Zellers and Sam Mitre came home on a double by Anthony Couch.

In the top of the second inning, it was the Red Devils’ turn to take advantage of MA starter Zellers. Braden Curran walked and scored on a triple by Max Bryant, who came home when Geno Ferrari grounded out to third.

Griffin Dobbersteinb then took the hill in the top of the fourth and allowed three runs to give the visitors an 8-7 lead. Ferrari walked, and Bryant was hit by a pitch. A Jaxon Pinter double sent Ferrari and Bryant home, and Pinter scored on a Dobberstein wild pitch.

Dobberstein then settled down and struck out the side to send the game to the fourth inning with Marquette still down by one run.

The Cru took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning. Couch singled and came home on a Charlie Mullen double, and Mullen was plated by Jackson Higgins.

Leading 9-8, Marquette sent Dobberstein out to finish the game. After Hall put runners on second and third, Marquette elected to bring in Alec Novotney to take the mound. Novotney fanned Ferarri on three pitches to end the game, notch the save and preserve the win for Dobberstein.

Pinter was the hitting star for the Red Devils with two doubles and a single. Dye had two singles, while Jack Jablonski added two singles.

“Hall is not a one-through-five team. They are one-through-nine,” Crusaders coach Todd Hopkins said, referring to the Red Devils’ deep lineup. “They can hit the ball, but Alec (Novotney) was able to get his breaking ball over and got the guy.”

Couch led Marquette Academy with a double and two singles, and Dobberstein added two singles.

Marquette improves to 18-1 with the victory. The Red Devils slip to 12-8 with the loss.