by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
The Marion baseball team played a pair of close contests to get the year going in Bear Lake on Monday. Fortunately for the Eagles they were able to walk away with wins in both, getting 3-2 and 10-9 wins in West Michigan ‘D’ League play.
“This was a good night for us even though it was our first time outside this year,” Grundy said. “We had our pitchers on tight pitch counts and they all did a great job. Like everyone we have lots of things to work on but these were two big wins for us.”
In the opener, Weston Cox tripled in the second inning to put himself in good position. He came in to score on a Tucker Sigafoose groundout to make it 1-0. Marion also had a run in the fourth to lead 2-0, but Bear Lake tied it up with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Gavin Prielipp had a key hit in the sixth inning to help Marion pull off the win.
Braden Prielipp was the winning pitcher, tossing one and one-third innings of relief, getting three strikeouts. Mason Salisbury started the game on the mound and struck out seven in two and one-third innings of work and Aadin Yowell fanned three in two and two-third innings.
Cox had a triple, single and one RBI, G. Prielipp had one hit and Sigafoose and an RBI.
In game two, Bear Lake led 5-3 after two innings, with Marion tying it up at 5-5 in the third. Bear Lake swung back ahead 9-5, but Marion scored five runs late to steal the win.
Gavin Prielipp got the win, tossing one and two-third innings of relief, and he struck out three. Sigafoose had two and two-third innings of work and B. Prielipp tossed one and one-third innings.
G. Prielipp and Salisbury had two hits and two RBI apiece, Cox had one hit and two RBI and Yowell added one hit.
Overall, this was a good start for the Eagles, who went 24-10 last year and won the West Michigan ‘D’ League.
“We want to win 20 games, a conference title and be playing our best baseball at tournament time,” Grundy said.
Back from last year’s team will be senior Keegan Baldwin (first base), juniors Salisbury (pitcher, shortstop, all-district), Cox (catcher, all-district), Yowell (pitcher, infield, all-district) and sophomores B. Prielipp (pitcher, infield, all-district) and G. Prielipp (pitcher, outfield, all district).
New to the team this year will be juniors Alex Johnson (outfield), Wyatt Schmidt (outfield), Sigafoose (catcher, pitcher), Dylan Thomas (outfield), Trevor Lundbom (outfield), sophomores Aaron Whitney (outfield) and Hayden Ostrowski (infield) and freshman Coley Meyer (outfield, pitcher).
“We have a lot of pitching depth, but we are still pretty young with only one senior on our roster,” Grundy said.
Marion (2-0 overall, 2-0 WMD) returns to action on Monday, at home against Walkerville.
