The Marion Warriors baseball team went 0-for-4 in two doubleheaders last week.
The Warriors played Halstead in Marion on Thursday after a visit Sacred Heart on Tuesday.
On the strength of a four-run third inning, Halstead turned eight hits into six runs and won the opener 6-3.
A pair of defensive plays by Cody Wildin kept Halstead off the board in the first inning.
A leadoff walk followed by a sacrifice bunt put Dragons second baseman Taylor Classco on third with no outs.
Justin Calvin drilled the next pitch toward right-center, but Wildin ranged to his right to intercept the line drive.
Halstead catcher Ryan Sooter tested Wildin again during the subsequent at-bat, but the Warrior second baseman was equal to the task.
A 1-2-3 inning put the Marion defense back on the field, and Wildin recorded two more put-outs as Daniel Brassfield faced the minimum batters.
But the game slipped away in the top of the third. Trouble began when leadoff hitter Jordan Murray reached base after striking out on three pitches.
A pair of infield singles scored Murray and brought up the top of the order for the second time. A fielder’s choice, an error, a hit batter and a sharp single up the middle conspired to bring in three more runs.
It might have been worse had not catcher Chase Williams recovered a passed ball in time to cut down Calvin at the plate.
Neither team scored again until Halstead added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh.
In the bottom half, the Warriors collected four hits and scored three runs: a leadoff triple by Will Case, a single by Aaron Burnett, a single by Brassfield capped by a single smashed deep into the right-center gap by Matt Thierolf.
Ben Eldridge came in to run for Brassfield, and scored the Warriors final run on Thierolf’s hit, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the first game.
In the second game, the Dragons hammered out 17 hits and downed the Warriors 11-0 in seven innings.
Marion managed just one hit—a single by Chase Williams—during the final five innings against Kyle Bolet.
At Salina two days earlier, the Warriors were defeated 12-0 and 17-0 in a total of nine innings.
Marion recorded one hit—a single by Chase Williams.
Coming—Marion played at home Tuesday and will play at Hoisington on Friday.
