The Bobcats buckled under the weight of adversity in the first inning of the first game, but turned things around for game two.

Eighth-grader Briley Danielson struck out 10 in a complete-game pitching performance to win the second game of Wednesday’s Iowa Alliance Conference doubleheader against Des Moines Hoover, helping the Bobcats earn a split with a 14-7 triumph in the nightcap.

The visiting Huskies scored four unearned runs in the first half inning of the day on their way to a 13-3, five-inning win in the opener. Marshalltown fell behind 3-0 after Hoover’s first at-bat of game two, but the Bobcats responded in kind — and then they kept going.

“I’m trying to fix it with mentality,” said MHS first-year head coach Jason Bowers. “It’s the approach of ‘we make a mistake, it doesn’t matter, we’ve gotta go get the next one.’

“I’ve kinda bragged about my defense but honestly we do make too many mistakes, fundamental mistakes. We would have been out of that (first inning of game one), but I’m trying to fix it up here,” he said, his index fingers pointing to his head.

Marshalltown (6-19) scored double-digit runs for the fourth time all season by beating the ball around for 16 hits in the second game. Gianna Baune, Danielson, Stupp and Kinsley Bowie all had three hits and drove in at least two runs apiece, while Kate Sandvick was 2-for-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and three RBIs.

And Sandvick’s four-pitch walk in her first at-bat of the nightcap might have been her biggest play of the day.

Hoover pitcher Angenai Crawford got Baune and Bella Avise to fly out on the first offering to both of them, before Sandvick’s patience helped prolong another potentially disastrous beginning. After Sandvick stole second base, Danielson blooped a run-scoring single to center field, and Stupp followed with a two-run homer — also on the first pitch.

Danielson and her defense overcame an error to start the second inning with a 1-6-3 double play, and another groundout brought the Bobcat offense quickly back to the plate in a 3-all tie.

Kinsley Bowie was hit by a pitch before Laney Danielson reached on an error. Kennedy Feldman moved both up with a sacrifice bunt, and Baune’s swinging bunt stopped on the chalk line to drive in Bowie’s courtesy runner Abby Janssen.

Avise popped out to the Hoover first baseman in foul territory for the second out with Baune trying to steal second, and the Bobcats’ speedy leadoff hitter narrowly got back to first base in time. Instead, Marshalltown dodged a critical baserunning error and Sandvick came up clutch with her first of two run-scoring doubles. Danielson followed with an RBI double down the left-field line, Stupp singled her home, and MHS led 8-3.

The Bobcats tacked on two runs in the third, one in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take care of the Huskies (6-14) and earn the split.

“I’m still looking for that one lineup that just kinda jells together,” said Bowers. “I brought another eighth-grader up — Bella Avise — but she hits the ball hard and that’s what I’m looking for. She doesn’t strike out, she just puts the ball in play and that’s why she was in the lineup tonight in the second game.”

The Bobcats got six hits against Crawford and then 10 more against Kaitlynn Asher in her four innings of relief pitching. Asher held MHS to six hits in the Huskies’ 13-3 triumph in the opening game, but the bats turned things around in the nightcap.

It helped to have Briley in the circle. The right-hander spun up 10 strikeouts while scattering seven hits, four walks and three hit batters.

“She’s been battling a shoulder injury but she came out today and she brought it,” Bowers said. “I was proud of her.”

Hoover’s four-run eruption in the first half inning of the first game gave the Bobcats more adversity than they could deal with, and the snowball rolled downhill before quickly transforming into an avalanche. The Huskies scored four more in the top of the second and turned it into a run rule-shortened triumph.

“I think that’s been the challenge all year,” Bowers said of handling adversity. “I told them after the first game, I’m going to be a happy coach if we can put the mentality part of the game together and just play softball. You see bits and pieces of it as the year’s gone, and I’m not quite happy with it yet, but it’s trending upward.”

Karsyn Price took the loss in the circle for MHS, allowing eight runs but only three earned in 1 1/3 innings pitched. She walked a total of three and struck out two. Stupp gave up two runs in 1 2/3 innings, and Hanna Osgood gave up three runs on three hits and two walks in two innings. She also struck out two.

Briley singled twice and scored two runs to lead MHS offensively. Baune, Sandvick, Bowie and Avise each added singles.

Marshalltown’s eight-game week continues with Thursday’s Alliance doubleheader at Ames. The Bobcat Classic is slated for Friday and Saturday at the Marshalltown Girls Softball Association diamonds on the Marshalltown Community College campus.