Hunter Larson of the Marquette County Mavericks up to bat during a game against Jill Leonard-State Farm which took place Monday, July 30, at the Ironton Field in Negaunee. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

NEGAUNEE — Good pitching and a spread-out offensive performance propelled the Marquette County Mavericks over Jill Leonard-State Farm 8-1 in a Superiorland Baseball League game played at Irontown Field on Monday night.

The Mavericks improved to 6-1 while JLSF dropped to 2-5 with just three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Mavericks center fielder James Larsen II credited his team’s pitching in the victory. The team used four pitchers in the game, allowing a combined four hits in seven innings.

“It was a pretty good game,” he said. “It’s nice to have a stable of pitchers you can rely on and give each a couple of innings.”

After the Mavericks took an early 1-0 lead, starting pitcher Steve Hintsala pitched consecutive 1-2-3 innings before being replaced by Ryan Hanson, who took over to start the third.

Up 3-0 at that point, the Mavericks kept things going at the plate in the fourth. After JLSF got two of the first three batters out in the inning, Brad Jalonen reached on an infield single and advanced to second on an overthrow, which also advanced Hintsala to third who got on base on a walk.

The next batter, Aaron Adriano knocked a base hit to left field, scoring Hintsala to make it 4-0. With Jalonen now standing on third, the threat ended when Jake Spear lined out to left.

The Mavericks added another run in the fifth on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice and two more in the sixth when Sam Prentice tripled to the center field fence, scoring Adriano and Spear and padding MC’s lead to 7-0.

JLSF finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Aaron Karlstrom grounded into a fielder’s choice, which scored Ben Murphy from third.

The Mavericks tallied one more run in the seventh and Adriano took the rubber to close things out.

Hintsala drew three walks in the game, while Spear went two-for-five with a double and Prentice went three-for-four on the day.

Murphy went 2 for 4 for JLSF while Karlstrom drew a walk.

Larsen said as season two of Superiorland Baseball nears its postseason tournament beginning on Aug. 15, things have been a success so far and he’s already looking forward to the growth of the league next season.

“It’s been good,” he said. “We’re ahead of schedule and as for the amount of teams we’re looking to build on next year by getting a sixth team. The fans are enjoying it and the guys love the game, so it’s good to be able to do this once a week.”

Jill Leonard-State Farm will face Coldwell Banker-Craig Heinonen at the Forsyth Township Ball Field, while the Mavericks are back at Irontown Field against the Negaunee Blasters. The Channing Railroaders have an off-week. Both games are set for Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.