News editor
When Marion baseball coach Roger Schroeder looked at his team’s schedule and saw Little River and Moundridge in the same week, he knew the Warriors would have a tough week that would require grinding out some games.
The Warriors did just that, sweeping Little River in a tight doubleheader before taking on Moundridge in the only Friday home series of the season.
Luke Steele gave the team a good start in game one, holding Moundridge scoreless for five innings before giving up a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Jacob Harper closed the game in the seventh for a save as the Warriors won, 5-2.
Austin Pedersen started game two for Marion and struck out 10 batters while allowing 3 hits and no runs in six innings.
Schroeder said Pedersen was throwing quality strikes and starting seemingly every batter out 0-1. That helped him avoid long at-bats that plagued him in 2012.
The biggest at-bat of the day for Marion was in the first inning of game two. The bases were loaded when Bret Voth hit a flare into right field to score two runs.
Schroeder said the Warriors still have work to do on offense, but he was happy to see the hitters put the ball in play rather than striking out swinging at pitches out of the zone.
“We’re bailing guys out,” he said of the team’s hitting.