The East Marshall baseball team moved through the first round of the Class 2A District 12 tournament by beating second-seeded Des Moines Christian, 7-2, on Saturday at Terry Fox Field. The Mustangs (11-14), now riding a season-best five-game win streak, will meet conference rival West Marshall (19-13) in Tuesday’s 5 p.m. semifinal in Pleasantville.

Prior to escaping a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the second inning, prospects of pushing past the Lions (15-13) looked a little glum.

Dropped fly balls paved the way to Des Moines Christian’s go-ahead run in the first inning and another leadoff runner on base in the bottom of the second, but East Marshall’s defense steeled under pressure and pulled itself out of a precarious position to preserve a 1-all tie.

Mustang third baseman Kam Hoskins collected a grounder down the line and teamed with catcher Wesley Hamor for an efficient rundown to catch Des Moines Christian’s Tyler Ketcham in a pickle between third and home. Back-to-back walks issued by East Marshall senior right-hander Justin Ridout loaded the bases, but a groundout to Zane Johnson at shortstop ended the threat.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall senior shortstop Zane Johnson, right, receives the pickoff throw as Des Moines Christian's Tyler Ketcham (26) dives safely back to second base during the second inning of SaturdayÕs district baseball game in Colfax.

East Marshall’s offense, which averaged eight runs per game in four wins leading up to the postseason opener, found its spark. Austin Elliot singled, stole second and scored on a throwing error on Johnson’s infield single, and Johnson stole second before scoring on Ridout’s hit to right.

Hoskins later lifted a sacrifice fly that plated Ridout’s courtesy runner Dane Thompson, and the Mustangs suddenly led 4-1.

Hamor, a freshman, connected for his first career home run in the top of the fourth, and a two-run, two-out single by Johnson drove in Hamor’s courtesy runner Cade Curphy as well as Elliot in the sixth.

“We’ve been swinging the bats really well the last week and in [batting practice] the last two days we did the same thing,” said East Marshall head coach Justin Frost. “We were kind of expecting to put the ball in play and we did for the most part.”

In the meantime, Ridout had found his groove on the mound and minimized the impact of a pitch count that bubbled over in the early going. Ridout (4-2) threw 53 pitches in the first two innings but the Mustangs held ground, getting out of the bases-loaded jam unscathed before the bats came to life.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall's Justin Ridout (22) runs off the field as courtesy runner Dane Thompson (8) replaces him at first base after a fifth-inning single during Saturday's district baseball game in Colfax. Ridout had two hits and pitched all seven innings for the win as the Mustangs triumphed 7-2.

Once he felt comfortable with the distance East Marshall’s offense had created between itself and Des Moines Christian, his pitch count leveled out and his control of the strike zone became evident.

“To be honest it was adjusting to the mound,” Ridout said of his early struggles. “It took forever, but once I found it, I felt pretty good.

“I kind of figured we were going to [score some runs] sometime in the game. We’ve been scoring quite a few runs this year, so I knew I had to pitch a decent game and the defense did a pretty good job behind me.”

Ridout scattered five hits over the complete-game performance, walking three (in the first two innings) while striking out three. Both runs came unearned to the junior, who has only allowed more than two runs in one of his seven starts this summer.

“The only thing we were worried about was the first couple innings really ran his pitch count up,” said Frost. “Once he settled in and we got a little bit of a lead, we knew we could pound the strike zone and pitch to contact and that’s what he did for the last three or four innings.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall third baseman Kam Hoskins, left, scoops a low throw as Des Moines Christian's Cal Matthes successfully steals the base during the second inning of their Class 2A District 12 first-round baseball game in Colfax.

After accumulating too many pitches to foresee a lengthy start from the team’s ace, East Marshall backed Ridout with enough run support and defense that delivered the peace of mind the purple and gold needed.

The Mustangs finished with 10 hits — five each against Lions starter Brett Shelton (6-2) and Ketcham in relief — and went 3-for-3 stealing second base.

“We knew Shelton had a low ERA and a lot of strikeouts, but really didn’t know anything about him,” said Frost, “but he was very similar to the kid from Belle Plaine we faced the other day — a big right [who pitched] straight over the top and I think that really helped our kids.

“For the last week, top to bottom, we’ve been swinging the bats really well.”

Seven of East Marshall’s nine batters had at least one hit, with two apiece for Elliot, Johnson and Ridout at the top of the order. Zach Jacobson’s lone hit was a double that shorthopped the fence in left, and Hamor’s homer was his third extra-base hit of the season. Tyler DeBondt drove in the Mustangs’ first run with a two-out single to plate Jacobson in the second inning.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

It all amounted to more than enough for Ridout.

“We made it to where I could throw that later-in-the-count curveball, and if I walked them it didn’t really mean that much because we had quite a bit of cushion,” said Ridout. “It made me more confident in my curveball.”

Though after the first two innings, he rarely needed it. Ridout and his defense retired six in a row at one point, five-straight at another, and delivered no more than 10 pitches in each of the last five frames. The pitch count weighed heavily in the early stages when considering East Marshall had led by at least two runs in eight of its 14 losses this season, and bringing in a new pitcher may have cost the Mustangs some momentum.

Des Moines Christian scratched out a run in the bottom of the seventh and had a runner on first with one out before Shelton’s comebacker glanced off Ridout right to Elliot, who flipped to Johnson for the lead out and over to Colton Weese at first for a game-ending double play.

Ridout finished with 91 pitches for the game, well shy of the 110 limit for a single outing but one too many to bring Ridout back for any part of Tuesday’s third meeting with NICL West Division rival West Marshall.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

The Trojans won this year’s regular-season meetings 6-4 and 4-2, and West Marshall also eliminated the Mustangs from last year’s district tournament in the semifinals, 3-2, in a game played in Dike.

“Hopefully we can keep it up on Tuesday and can put a few runs on the board,” said Frost. “In the tournament you’ve got to win one game at a time. It’s an old cliché but it’s true. That’s all we’re trying to do and not really worry about the next opponent.”

East Marshall 7, Des Moines Christian 2

At Colfax

EM 013 102 0 — 7 10 3

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

DMC 100 000 1 — 2 5 2

Justin Ridout and Wesley Hamor; Brett Shelton, Tyler Ketcham (3) and Grant Christy. W–Ridout (4-2). L–Shelton (6-2). 2B–EM: Austin Elliot, Zach Jacobson. 3B–DMC: Cal Matthes. HR–EM: Hamor (1). LOB–EM 5, DMC 8.