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New Knoxville shortstop Parker Jones takes the throw as Marion's Ethan Heitkamp slides into second.
MARIA STEIN - New Knoxville led Marion Local 2-0 after 2 1/2 innings in Tuesday's Division IV sectional tournament opener.
The scoreboard looked a lot different by the end of three.
The Flyers plated seven runs in the third and then added seven more in the fourth en route to a 14-2, five-inning run-rule victory over the Rangers.
Marion had just one hit and struck out four times against Ranger starter Jay Waterman through the first two innings. In the third and fourth innings, the home team had seven hits while drawing six walks and two hit batsmen.
"We woke up," Marion Local coach Mitch Hays said. "When the game started out, we weren't taking quality at-bats. We started knowing that, and I think (Waterman) struggled a little bit, which helped us out. But once we get baserunners on, we utilize our speed."
Eighth-seeded Marion - which stole four bases Tuesday - advances to visit third-seeded Minster on Thursday with a district berth on the line.
The 11th-seeded Rangers had a bases-loaded threat ended in the first inning when Jay Schroeder fouled off a squeeze bunt attempt with two strikes. But Knoxville was back in business a couple innings later, loading the bases with a double by Luke Stachler, a walk to Waterman and a Preston Rutschilling single. Tyler Lammers followed with a ground ball to the shortstop, who attempted to turn a double play but sailed a throw past the first baseman. Lammers was credited with an RBI, and another runner scored on the error to make it 2-0.
Marion's third-inning trip to the plate began with a walk by Damon Cramer, who moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. Drew Lause followed with a bunt. Another error was charged to the Ranger infield on the throw to first, allowing a run to score that cut the deficit in half. The big hits in the inning came from Jake Topp (two-run single), Hayden Poeppelman (one-run single) and Cramer (two-run single).
"We knew coming into this season that it was going to come down to putting the ball in play offensively, which we did a pretty good job of today, catching the ball, and throwing the ball. Just real simple stuff," said New Knoxville coach Gabe Coil, whose team bows out at 1-16. "We've got a young team with six freshmen. In the third inning, we started off with a walk. We weren't throwing strikes in that situation, then we had two errors where we could have just got it and thrown it (to first base). Once the momentum switches like that, we sometimes have trouble switching that back."
Marion Local's Parker Hess slides in safely behind New Knoxville catcher Luke Stachler in the Division IV tournament opener at the Airport on Tuesday.
Topp collected his third RBI in the fourth inning with a single. A bases-loaded walk to Bryant Meier scored another. Cramer got RBI three, four and five with a three-run double down the right-field line.
Smith collected two of Knoxville's four hits. Waterman fanned seven hitters in three innings.
Ian Rindler had six Ks over five innings to earn the win. Cramer went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and five RBI for the Flyers, who look for payback on Minster after a 10-3 loss during the regular season.
"We've just got to be focused and play our game," Hays said. "We've played our game the last three weeks. We don't have a great record in that stretch, but we've lost five one-run games and two of them in extra innings. We know we can play with teams. We've just got to get to the other side of that one-run game."
