The youthful Marshalltown baseball team continues to take its lumps, but the Bobcats put up a fight on Thursday night.

Despite having just two hits in the opening game, Marshalltown fought back to take a lead before Des Moines East reclaimed it in a 12-9 Scarlet victory at the MHS diamond.

The Bobcats couldn’t keep their fight alive in the second game and fell 11-3 for the Iowa Alliance Conference sweep for the Scarlets (5-16).

Marshalltown (6-17) combined for six errors, seven hits and 19 walks issued by its pitchers in the doubleheader defeat. While no single mistake meant more than the others, it was the sum total of them all that prevented the Bobcats from finding sustained success.

“I told them at the end of Game 1 — it’s not just the last inning,” said MHS head coach Colton Hanke. “It’s the little things that happen in the first inning. It’s the little things that happened later on. We were just kind of missing a couple hits here and there.

“We’re close, but we just let it slip away.”

Des Moines East jumped out right away with a four-run at-bat in the top of the first inning, and MHS scratched out one run in response. Garrett Thede walked and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Madden Martin, but the visiting Scarlets put together two more runs for a 6-1 advantage after two innings.

Thede took over on the mound in the third and faced one more than the minimum over the next three frames as the Bobcat offense started to find ways to manufacture runs. Walks to Aiden Holmgren and Thede chased East starter Marquise Pierce from the mound in the third, and a throwing error on Madden Martin’s grounder got Holmgren across.

Quinn McLeod also walked before wild pitches plated two more runs to make it 6-4.

In the fourth, another throwing error led two two more runs for Marshalltown as Bennett Ricken and James Miron came around on wild pitches to tie the game.

East finally got to Thede for a pair of unearned runs in the sixth. A two-out error prolonged East’s at-bat before A’monte Johnson drove in two runs with a double, making it 8-6, but the Bobcats were up for the fight.

Ricken led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk, Holmgren walked one out later and Thede singled both home with a ground ball up the middle. Advancing to third on the throw home, Thede then came across on a balk to give the Bobcats the 9-8 lead.

JT Giefer led off with a walk for East in the top of the seventh, chasing Thede from the mound, but Martin fared no better, allowing four runs on three doubles and a catcher’s interference call that erased a double play by the Bobcat defense.

All three MHS batters were struck out by Jordan Cason to end the game.

Thede was 1-for-1 with two RBIs and three runs scored, and Larrs Schoenfelder had the team’s only other hit. The Bobcats benefitted from 10 walks but couldn’t overcome nine of their own.

In the nightcap, East outhit Marshalltown 12-5 and capitalized on the Bobcat pitching staff’s 10 walks to go with three errors. The Scarlets led 7-0 before MHS got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Holmgren singled to start the inning and Thede followed with a hit of his own. Two outs later, Martin walked and McLeod singled before Schoenfelder slapped a two-run single to right to make it 7-3.

The Bobcats had no more hits, however, and fell to the Scarlets.

McLeod had two of the team’s five hits.

East had five doubles among its 12 hits and had 11 doubles for the day.