Photo by Samantha Davis. Marshall's Josh Kraft throws a pitch in the first inning against St. Peter Tuesday night at Legion Field in Marshall. Kraft threw a no-hitter and hit the first home run of the season in the Tigers' 10-0 mercy-rule win.

MARSHALL — Behind Josh Kraft’s five-inning no-hitter on the mound and the team’s first home run of the season, the Marshall baseball team cruised to a 10-0 mercy-rule win against St. Peter in a Big South Conference game at Legion Field Tuesday night. The Tigers pulled away early with a five-run second inning.

“I think it’s a different story than last year. We weren’t hitting the ball as well … We do a lot of hitting in practice,” Kraft said regarding the team’s offensive momentum on Tuesday. “All the hitting that we do in practice is really helping us in putting a lot of pressure on teams, and us also being really loud in the dugout [helps].”

Kraft struck out eight batters while allowing two hits and no walks in his shutout performance. He also led the offense with a team-high four RBIs along with two hits, one run and a two-run home run in the fourth inning.

“Honestly, it was just having trust in my teammates behind me, and trusting the practice and off-season work that we put in,” Kraft said. “Just going out there and showing up.”

St. Peter committed three errors on the night, to Marshall’s clean slate. The Tigers scored their 10 runs off 12 hits.

Along with Kraft on the batting end, Eli Alcorn had three RBIs and two hits, while Samuel Thor had another two hits. Nine different Tigers of the 11-man lineup had at least one hit in the night.

“We played really well. Obviously, the no-hitter from Josh, and then everybody else behind. We didn’t have an error, just a couple of free bases on walks and that was it,” Marshall head coach Chase Pollock said. “It was a good ball game for us tonight.”

Marshall repeats its strong start to the season, matching last year’s 5-0 start in its 20-6 overall finish.

“We’re getting better every game. We’re really hitting the ball well right now, and playing well defensively,” Pollock said. “We got a good group, and we’re excited about it. We’ll just keep trying to get better. There’s some things that we can work on, for sure.”

The Tigers didn’t waste time getting on base in their first at-bat after Kraft struck out a pair of Saints to get out of the top of the first.

Marshall took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Stelter got on base with a dropped fly ball out to right field, followed by Thor beating out a bunt. Stelter took to third base on the bunt as well before scoring the game’s first run on a Liam Kruse sacrifice fly.

A single line drive to right field from Alcorn then ran in Thor, before the Saints could finish up the inning.

Three strikeouts from Kraft quickly put the Tigers back in the box to bring in five more runs and take a 7-0 lead in the second inning.

“I thought he [Kraft] had a great night tonight. Threw strikes. He had his best stuff working,” Pollock said. “He hit the ball hard a couple times there. That’s the Josh we know.”

Chase Alcorn got the rally started after running home from third base with a single to left field from Thor, and initially got on base with a single infield grounder.

Marshall loaded the bases up with Stelter occupying third, Thor on second and Kruse at first after another infield grounder.

Kraft stepped up to the plate and hit a double to left field to score Stelter and Thor.

Shep Jensen came in to courtesy run for Kraft, who quickly visited home plate after Eli hit a hard ground ball to center field to bring in Kruse and Jensen for the final two runs of the inning.

After a quiet third inning with no runs, Kraft went up to bat and hit a two-run home run over the left field wall in the bottom of the fourth, putting Marshall up 9-0.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know it [the baseball] went out,” Kraft said, laughing. “I stopped and turned back to go to second, and then Pollock was looking at me. He was like, ‘It’s out, keep running.'”

With Marshall looking to end the game early after holding St. Peter scoreless again in its final at-bat, Levi Maeyaert hit a walk-off single to center field to score Stelter from third base to close out the night.

The bases were loaded with Maeyaert stepping up, with Kruse on second and Kraft on first, along with Stelter on third.

Marshall (5-0) has a few days off from games, and will next return to the diamond when it travels to Hutchinson on Monday with a 4:30 p.m. first pitch.

“We’ll just keep going game to game,” Kraft said. “Keeping our heads down, working in practice, and not caring who our opponent is.”