Only seven times in Major League Baseball history have teams won a game without getting a hit.

The Marshalltown baseball team pulled off that statistical oddity in its home opener Friday night, beating North Tama 2-1 after scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Santiago Mora’s four-pitch, walk-off walk drove in pinch-runner Bennett Ricken as the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, rescuing the Bobcats (3-1) from their offensive woes with a hard-fought victory.

“It’s great, home opener and you always enjoy the win for sure,” said MHS head coach Colton Hanke. “Take them while you can and still reflect and learn and hopefully build more and win more off of those.”

North Tama pitchers Kayler Morris and Maddox Rausch combined on 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball, but the Redhawks (0-2) couldn’t overcome their 10 walks and two hit batsmen.

North Tama took a 1-0 lead on a Bobcat error in the top of the fifth, but Marshalltown mustered up a comeback in its last at-bat. Leadoff hitter Jalen Logsdon started the seventh with a walk from Morris, stole second and advanced to third when the throw went into center field.

Larrs Schoenfelder’s suicide squeeze bunt attempt went foul, but he continued the at-bat and drove a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Logsdon as the tying run.

One out later, Morris plunked Madden Martin, and the Redhawks turned to Rausch as Morris reached his single-game pitch limit.

Kinnick Niedermann worked a five-pitch walk, Garrett Thede loaded the bases after a nine-pitch at-bat when his grounder to first base was misplayed, and Mora held onto his bat as Rausch issued the game-ending walk on four consecutive pitches.

Schoenfelder put the Bobcats on his back for much of the contest, finishing with a two-hitter on the mound in a complete-game performance. He struck out nine, walked only one, and threw 55 of 79 pitches for strikes.

“It’s the little things in the game and Larrs did a really good job tonight,” Hanke said. “He did an excellent job on the mound and gave us a chance to win it at the end.

“He’s getting a lot of confidence. That’s the beauty of coming up as an eighth-grader and also him being in as many sports as possible, just being in those competitive situations gets him prepared and helps him mature a lot faster than others that don’t get involved in other sports. Larrs is doing the right things and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

North Tama’s solo tally in the fifth followed a one-out double by Kadeyn Velasco. Velasco promptly stole third and scored when the throw skipped down the base line and into left field.

Morris had the only other hit for the Redhawks, who committed four errors but were in position to take down their Class 4A host.

The Bobcats are back at home on Tuesday night, entertaining Newton in another JV/varsity doubleheader starting at 5/7 p.m.