On Saturday morning, the Marshall County Dusters suffered their second straight shutout loss when they were defeated 5-0 by the Louisville Phenom at Siegel High School in the MTSU Top Ten tournament.

After being no-hit by Nashville Knights' pitcher Austin Smith, the Dusters (18-14) had their bats silenced once again and mustered just four singles and two walks against Louisville starting hurler Boo Crabtree, who went the distance on the mound to pick up the win.

Matt Sharp notched two hits to pace Marshall County at the plate, while Chandler Harmon and Lane Whitesell each had one hit.

Living up to name

The Phenom, conversely, banged out 11 hits and drew three walks against two Duster pitchers. Leadoff hitter DeAires Moses jumpstarted Louisville's offensive attack by going 3-for-4 with a run scored. Matt Murray (2 RBI), Ben Hachten, and Nick Gallagher tallied two hits apiece for Louisville as well, while Zack Engel (1 RBI) and Alec Dunn each had one hit.

Marshall County did throw out three Phenom runners on the base paths, but also committed two errors, which contributed to two of Louisville's five runs.

Duster starting pitcher Hayden Bailey suffered the loss and allowed five runs, three earned, over six innings on 10 hits and three walks to go along with five strikeouts. Grayson Wiles came on in relief of Bailey and yielded one hit in one scoreless inning of work.

"They did a good job of manufacturing some runs early and we helped them by making some errors," said Marshall County coach Mike Reese. "They have a good team and facing this kind of competition is good for us. I was proud of the way our guys kept competing."

Early strength

The Phenom grabbed the momentum early and pushed across a run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. After singling to leadoff the frame, Moses scored thanks to a single by Hachten and a Duster throwing error.

The Dusters had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the first after putting men on first and second with one out, but Crabtree retired the next two Marshall County batters on a pop out and a strikeout to snuff out the threat.

Louisville opened up a 2-0 advantage in the top of the second when Kyle Smith scored on a two-out RBI single by Murray after reaching base on an error and advancing to second on a Dunn groundout.

The Phenom extended their lead to 4-0 by pushing across two runs in the top of the third on the strength of a single by Gallagher, a Ted Epps walk, a sacrifice bunt by Dunn, a Murray RBI single, and a double steal.

In the top of the fifth, Louisville tacked on another run with the help of a leadoff double by Hachten and a Engel RBI single to forge a 5-0 advantage

Marshall County had another chance to spoil Crabtree's shutout bid in the bottom of the sixth and put men on second and third with one out thanks to a pair of singles by Harmon and Sharp and a wild pitch. The Dusters would fail to cash in one again, as Crabtree retired the next two Marshall County batters on a lineout and a groundout to escape the jam.

Crabtree then sat down the Dusters in order in the bottom of the seventh to close out the win for the Phenom.