Tate Kuehner

AMES — The Marshalltown baseball team split its regular-season finale on Monday night, beating Ames 9-5 in the opener before falling 10-4 to the Little Cyclones in the nightcap.

The win in the second game for Ames (8-29) ended a 12-game losing skid for the hosts.

Tate Kuehner pitched three strong innings in game one and also hit his first home run of the season, helping make a winner out of Wade Canaday. Canaday (8-2) pitched the second set of three innings, striking out seven, and Dylan Eygabroad finished in the seventh.

Kuehner went 2-for-3 with a double, a homer and three RBIs, while Canaday was 2-for-4 with a double.

The Bobcats (22-17) overcame six errors to win the opener, but couldn’t survive on just five hits in the second game.

Carson Williams was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs scored to lead MHS in game two, but the Bobcats couldn’t get much else going offensively.

Joseph Harris (3-4) took the loss on the mound for MHS, allowing three runs — one earned — on four hits and one walk over four innings, striking out six.

“Tonight was kind of a snapshot of our season,” said Bobcat head coach Steve Hanson. “We won game one with OK pitching and poor defense. We were able to swing it OK but gave up a bunch of extra outs that will be problematic going forward. We’ll have to play more cleanly in the postseason to have a fighting chance.

“Game two was OK for a while but our bullpen wasn’t good and we only got five hits. Put that all together and we got what we deserved.”

Marshalltown plays host to Cedar Falls in the first round of Class 4A substate play on Friday, as the Tigers visit MHS for a 7 p.m. contest.

At Ames

Game One

Marshalltown 9, Ames 5

MHS 010 313 1 — 9 9 6

AMES 001 040 0 — 5 6 2

Tate Kuehner, Wade Canaday (4), Dylan Eygabroad (7) and Will Van Buren; Cameron Gallt, Jake Schmit (6), Scott Junck (7) and Brady Burkheimer. W–Canaday (8-2). L–Gallt (1-3). 2B–MHS: Kuehner, Canaday; AMES: Ben Schwartz, Burkheimer. HR–MHS: Kuehner (1). LOB–MHS 9, AMES 9.

Game Two

Ames 10, Marshalltown 4

MHS 010 011 1 — 4 5 2

AMES 000 352 X — 10 13 1

Joseph Harris, Joe Burnes (5), Tyler Dunham (5), Carson Williams (5) and Van Buren; Josh Yloenen, Eliot Jurgensen (6) and Schmit. W–Yloenen (2-5). L–Harris (3-4). 2B–MHS: Williams 2; AMES: Nathan Griffin, Alex Martinez, Bobby Gens, Schmit. 3B–MHS: Eygabroad. LOB–MHS 3, AMES 5.