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Tuesday night saw Marshall travel to Justice to open their respective 2021 seasons in a showdown of the top two teams in the National District. On the mound to open the game for Justice was senior lefty Dean Kampschror (Virginia) and he got off to a so-so start. A pair of walks split with a pair of strikeouts put two on and two out for Kyle Robinson (Texas Tech), who singled to drive in a run, a wild pitch allowed another run to score and Marshall had an early 2-0 lead.

Senior righty Lucas Brauchli started the game for Marshall and fired a scoreless first inning. In the second, Marshall added 2 more runs, taking advantage of an error and aggressively scoring 2 runners on an infield single, giving the Statesmen a 4-0 lead. The Wolves put together a pair of one-out singles in the second, only for Brauchli to pick up his third and fourth strikeouts to end the threat.

In the third, Justice went to the pen, Kampschror moved to centerfield having gone 2 IP, 4 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 K. Justice senior Michael Novak tossed a perfect third inning, and then in the bottom of the third, after Justice had change pitchers too, Novak launched a two-out, two-run home run to left to cut the score to 4-2. 

Kyle Robinson came into pitch in the bottom of the fourth for Marshall, and the next few innings moved quickly. Robinson and Novak matched scoreless fourth and fifth innings and the game went to the sixth, still at 4-2.

In the top of the sixth, Marshall extended its lead to 6-2 with RBI singles from Brauchli and Brody Chichester. Robinson worked around a pair of baserunners in the bottom of the sixth to head to the final inning with a four run lead. In the top of the seventh, Marshall added one more insurance run on a wild pitch to head to the final half with a 7-2 lead.

Justice got off to an ideal start in the bottom of the seventh, using a hit, a walk, and an error to load the bases with no outs for the middle of the lineup. Robinson got a strikeout before walking Novak to force a run in to cut the score to 7-3. A groundout to first made it 7-4 before Robinson ended the game with his seventh strikeout, securing the win and a final score of Marshall 7, Justice 4.

Brauchli went 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K while also going 1-2 with an RBI and 2 BB. Robinson went 4 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 7 K, 3 BB, while also going 2-3 with an RBI and a BB at the plate. Novak was 1-3 with a HR, 3 RBI, a BB, and also tossed 4 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 2 K. Connor Naugle was 2-4 for Justice as well.

 

Marshall