Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye VFW’s Derek Wells is caught in a rundown during a VFW baseball game against Marshall Monday at Leavenworth Ballpark.

LEAVENWORTH — Marshall VFW and Sleepy Eye VFW both saw strong defensive performances in a VFW baseball game Monday at Leavenworth Ballpark, but in the end it was Marshall that came away with the 3-2 victory.

“Marshall’s a good team, they’re not going to make many errors,” Sleepy Eye head coach Alex Bruggeman said. “We need to put the ball into play, and when we did that tonight, we had success. Unfortunately, that kind of came in the later half of the game, so we didn’t quite do enough early. And then we failed to execute on some small ball. Missed bunts, missed steals, stuff like that. Then we had the one extra error that ended up costing us.

“Both pitchers threw strikes, Adam Braulick with his second outing of the year came out and gave us a chance to compete, and then Derek Wells came in and competed off of Adam’s success.”

Carson Mensink earned the win for Marshall in relief, shaking off an early line drive hit back at him to strike out five and allow one earned run on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. Jack Bly got the start for Marshall, striking out five and allowing one hit and no runs in 3 2/3 innings.

“I thought Jack Bly and Mensing both threw well,” Marshall VFW head coach Charlie Jacobson said. “Carson got stuck in a couple big jams in the end there in the sixth and seventh innings, and for him to compete especially after he took that line drive off the hip early on, that was good to see. He’s a tough kid, obviously he’s going to go out there and compete. And same for Bly.”

At the plate for Marshall, Rocco Rignell was 2 for 4 with a run scored, while Grant Lingl had a hit and a run scored. Mensink had a hit and an RBI, Brendan Price had an RBI and Bennett Graven had a run scored.

Derek Wales took the loss in relief for Sleepy Eye, striking out one and allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits in 2 2/3 innings. Adam Braulick made the start, striking out three and allowing one unearned run on three hits in 4 1/3 innings. At the plate, Wales was 2 for 4 with a run scored, while Braulick was 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Jared Portner had a hit and a run scored.

In such a low-scoring game, Marshall came up with several defensive holds with Sleepy Eye base runners in position. Meanwhile, the Marshall offense was able to get that extra hits when they had the opportunity.

“I think it’s just never giving up,” Jacobson said. “I think Price there in the sixth inning put that ball in play and they made an error, turned it into a score and that’s all we ask for. Put the ball in play, and good things will happen when we put the ball into play.”

Bruggeman said some of the execution could get smoothed out with more time and practice, as games have been infrequent for the team lately.

“We’ve had kind of a mixed schedule, pretty much playing one game a week right now,” he said. “So it’s kind of hard for our hitters to really execute in those situations. But as a team, we have to be better going into the playoffs. I told the kids, ‘We’re one hit away from winning that game, but I think we left the bases loaded twice in that game.’ One hit away that they ended up getting that we ended up not getting, and what really kind of cost us was two missed bunt opportunities that would have moved runners around 90 feet farther.”

The scoring had to wait until the fourth inning, Lingl singled and advanced to second on a walk drawn by Bly. Lingl took third on a passed ball, then scored on a sacrifice fly from Price to take a 1-0 lead. 

Sleepy Eye got the run back in the bottom of the fifth, with singles from Portner and Wales and a sacrifice bunt by Jaxon Saenz setting up Braulick for an RBI single to tie the game. However, Marshall scored again in the sixth on an error put into play by Price that scored Graven.

Marshall tacked on one more run in the seventh error as a single by Rignell was followed by a single by Mensink that brought Rignell home for a 3-1 lead. Sleepy Eye rallied in the bottom of the seventh, bringing home Wales on a single by Braulick, but once again came up short with more runners in scoring position as Marshall escaped with the win.

Sleepy Eye (5-4) plays next in a tournament in Sioux Falls on Friday.