Tiger starting pitcher Jacob Hess fires in a pitch during the fourth inning against New Ulm.

MARSHALL – The New Ulm Eagles spoiled Marshall’s home opener at Legion Field on Thursday, by defeating the Tigers, 6-5.

The Eagles jumped on the Tigers early with a four-run first inning. Marshall coach, Chace Pollock said the ball bounced New Ulm’s way in the first inning.

“It was Murphy’s Law there for a little bit,” Pollock said. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. They scored four runs and batted through the lineup. A couple hits fell in. A couple of them were hit hard. We helped them out with walks and a couple fielding errors. Those are things that good teams don’t do. They don’t make mistakes. We had one lapse in the first inning and that was the difference.”

The Eagles added one more in the top of the second off an RBI double to make it a 5-0 game. The Eagles added one more in the top of third to open up a 6-0 lead.

Marshall’s Kaleb Bossuyt got the Tigers in the hit column in the bottom of the third. Ryan VanMoer got Marshall on the board off an RBI single.

The Tigers inched closer thanks to a three-run fifth inning. Logan Tomasek drove in Marshall’s second run of the game off an RBI single. With two outs, Jacob Hess drove in a pair of runs to make it a 6-4 game.

“It was good to see them battle back,” Pollock said. “I think we are going to be a good hitting team, so we are never out of it. The guys did a nice job of battling.”

A Dylan Criquet-Danielson RBI single in the bottom of the sixth trimmed New Ulm’s lead to 6-5. The Tigers were unable to mount a seventh inning rally, as they went down 1-2-3 and fell to New Ulm, 6-5.

“There were a couple of situations where we get a hit and we are on the winning end of it,” Pollock said. “It’s still early in the year here. We are still getting better every day. Last year we saw these guys four times. If we can trade one of these loses for a win in the section I’ll take it.”

Hess was the losing pitcher. He tossed five innings and gave up six runs on eight hits. He recorded four strikeouts. Hess was also 2-3 at the plate with two RBIs.

With the loss the Tigers are now 1-2 on the young season. They’ll have their work cut out for them next week when they travel to Worthington on Tuesday and then play Mankato West at Legion Field.

“I’d like to see us put a zero in the error column. Thats tough to do in high school baseball. This group if capable of doing that. If we give teams extra outs anything can happen. We have two tough games next week. We have Worthington, who is 5-1. Then we have Mankato West, who was the one seed in the section. We just have to continue to get better.”

New Ulm 6, Marshall 5

New Ulm 411 000 0 — 6 10 0

Marshall 001 031 0 — 5 10 2

HITTING: Marshall (Penske 1-2; VanMoer 1-4; Criquet-Dnaielson 2-3; Thompson 1-4; Tomasek 1-2; Hess 2-3; Bossuyt 1-3; Morris 1-3.

PITCHING (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO): Marshall (Hess 5-8-6-6-2-4; VanMoer 2-2-0-0-1-1).