The Marshalltown baseball team needed a bit more balance on Wednesday night as the Bobcats’ hitting didn’t line up with their pitching performances in a doubleheader split against Ottumwa.

A pair of home runs picked up the Marshalltown bats in the first game in support of junior pitcher Will Van Buren, who pounded the strike zone in his third career start and powered the Bobcats to a 4-2 victory.

The clutch hits that came in the opener never arrived in the nightcap as Ottumwa junior Andrew Cole scattered six hits for his first career shutout, a 2-0 Bulldog triumph.

“Overall we received some solid pitching performances tonight, particularly Van Buren in the first game,” said MHS head coach Steve Hanson. “To hold any opponent to two runs normally will equate to a win. Our pitchers certainly gave us a chance tonight, which was important tonight but may carry greater significance as we continue through the rest of the week.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown senior Dylan Eygabroad, right, spins away from the tag by Ottumwa’s Trae Swartz (7) moments before teammate Wade Canaday connected for a go-ahead, two-run home run in the first game of Wednesday’s baseball doubleheader at MHS.

Van Buren went the distance on the mound in game one, needing just 71 pitches to get through the Ottumwa lineup exactly three times. The Bulldogs (5-2) pieced together two hits to score a run in both the first and fourth innings, but Marshalltown (5-3) took the lead late on a pair of round-trippers.

MHS senior Dru Dobbins came to bat with two outs in the bottom of the fourth and blasted the first pitch he saw from Zach Bennett over the fence in right-center field. Dylan Eygabroad got on with two outs in the fifth, and Wade Canaday came through when he lashed a line drive over the fence in left for a 3-2 Bobcat lead.

“We had some timely hitting in the first game which was enough to get us over the hump,” said Hanson. “Canaday and Dobbins were key to our game one offensive obviously.”

Marshalltown tacked on an insurance run in the sixth when Carson Williams reached on a leadoff walk, Tate Kuehner was hit by a pitch and Dobbins doubled to right-center to drive in Williams for a 4-2 lead.

Van Buren got through the top of the seventh on just five pitches, helped along when Cole was cut down trying for a triple to center field. The Kuehner-to-Eygabroad-to-Canaday connection came up with the big defensive play, even though Ottumwa needed more than just Cole’s run to prolong the ballgame.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Van Buren finished with seven strikeouts and no walks, allowing one earned run on seven hits. He threw 54 of his 71 pitches for strikes and threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters faced.

Canaday and Dobbins both had two hits and two RBIs to lead Marshalltown offensively in the first game, but the Bobcats’ six hits were too scattered in the second game to make a dent against Cole.

Cole finished with three strikeouts and no walks, and the Ottumwa defense didn’t make a mistake behind him in getting eight groundball outs and 10 flyouts.

Eygabroad (1-1) got the loss for Marshalltown, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks over three innings. He struck out four. Joe Burnes made his varsity pitching debut and faced only two more than the minimum in four shutout innings of relief in which he allowed one hit and one walk, striking out two.

Joseph Harris hammered a pair of doubles but that accounted for one-third of the Bobcats’ hits in the second game. Not until the seventh did Marshalltown threaten with multiple runners on base, as both Dobbins and Blake Trowbridge singled, but Cole wriggled out of the jam.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“In game two we had a few hits but half of them came with two outs and nobody on base,” said Hanson. “Their pitcher was around the plate and we didn’t do anything with him, so that makes it rough to score.”

Ottumwa got both its runs in the top of the first against Eygabroad, who walked two of the first three batters of the game. Jesus Jaime plated the first run for the Bulldogs with a bases-loaded groundout, and Adam Denniston delivered an RBI single with two outs.

Mitch Wood went 2-for-4 wth two doubles and a run scored for Ottumwa, and Denniston and Cole had two hits as well.

Marshalltown’s busy schedule persists tonight with a road game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy, as the junior varsity game starts at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m. at Kennedy High School. The Bobcats play another doubleheader on Friday at Des Moines North.

“Things don’t get any easier tomorrow as Kennedy is very well coached and will certainly take advantage of any extra outs or free bases we might provide,” said Hanson. “We played much more cleanly tonight than we did Monday, so that’s progress, but we still have room for growth.”

At Marshalltown

Game One

Marshalltown 4, Ottumwa 2

OTT 100 100 0 — 2 7 0

MHS 000 121 X — 4 8 1

Zach Bennett, Pedro Gonzalez (6) and Adam Denniston; Will Van Buren and Joseph Harris. W–Van Buren (1-0). L–Bennett (1-1). 2B–OTT: Trae Swartz, Jesus Jaime, Andrew Cole, Mitch Wood; MHS: Carson Williams, Wade Canaday, Dru Dobbins. HR–MHS: Dobbins (1), Canaday (2). LOB–OTT 4, MHS 5.

Game Two

Ottumwa 2, Marshalltown 0

OTT 200 000 0 — 2 7 0

MHS 000 000 0 — 0 6 0

Cole and Peyton Johnson; Dylan Eygabroad, Joe Burnes (5) and Van Buren. W–Cole (1-0). L–Eygabroad (1-1). 2B–OTT: Jaime, Wood 2; MHS: Harris 2. 3B–OTT: Cole. LOB–OTT 7, MHS 7.