Marshfield’s Ryan Campbell watches as his pitch heads for the plate early in the game against Thurston Thursday. Campbell shut down the Colts for two innings before Thurston scored nine runs in the third. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

COOS BAY — For two innings Tuesday, Marshfield pitcher Ryan Campbell kept Thurston’s potent lineup quiet.

Then the Colts broke loose, batting around in the third inning while scoring nine runs on the way to a 17-8 victory over the Pirates in a Midwestern League game.

Thurston added five more runs in the fourth inning, essentially putting the game out of reach after Marshfield had started with a promising 2-0 lead in the opening inning.

“They’re a good-hitting team — very fundamental,” said Marshfield coach Quintin Hall, noting how well the Colts put the ball in play with two strikes.

Campbell set the Colts down in order in the first inning and the Pirates started their half of the inning with a bang.

Cody Slack doubled to left and advanced to third on a single by Gatlon Giorgis that lined off the foot of Thurston pitcher Dylan Hesse. Slack tried to score from third on a wild pitch, but was ruled out on a close play at the plate.

Adam singled to right to score Giorgis and Justin Riddle had an infield single. Campbell put down a sacrifice bunt that resulted in a run-scoring error when the throw to first went high.

Hesse got out of the inning by striking out Levi Meline and getting Tyler Graves to ground the ball right back to the mound.

Campbell got three fly-ball outs in the second inning to preserve the lead, but Thurston started hitting the ball to open spots in the third.

Josh Galbreath, the No. 9 hitter in Thurston’s lineup, led off the inning with a towering home run to left-center. Danny Urness followed with a single and Kyle Hoover sacrificed him over to second. Darrell Hunter singled to score Urness and advanced to second on the throw to the plate, which prompted Hall to have Campbell intentionally walk designated hitter Brooks Chapman and replace Campbell with Geoff Van Pulliam.

The switch didn’t cool Thurston’s bats. Instead, Skip Spencer doubled in both Hunter and Chapman. Tym Pearson singled and stole second, and both Spencer and Pearson scored when Chris Reed hit a grounder and the throw to the plate sailed over Marshfield catcher Adam Reed. Colin Schauermann singled, Galbreath hit an RBI groundout, Urness tripled and Hoover hit an RBI single to complete the barrage.

By the time the Colts had batted around again the next inning off Van Pulliam and freshman reliever Kane Rowley, six of Thurston’s nine batters had scored two runs.

“I put Geoff and Kane in bad spots,” said Hall, adding that he was pleased with how Rowley pitched, throwing the final 3 2/3 innings.

“I’m proud of my freshman,” Hall said. “He came in and battled it out.”

With Thurston up 14-2, the game appeared headed for an early ending under the 10-run rule. But Thurston coach Phil Dube pulled Hesse in favor of Spencer and Marshfield scored four times in the fourth inning with just two hits. Hesse walked Tyler Graves and Rowley before Slack hit an infield single to load the bases. Giorgis was safe on a fielder’s choice, scoring Graves, and Reed followed with an RBI single. Justin Riddle and Van Pulliam then had back-to-back bases-loaded walks to bring in the other runs.

"I’m proud that my kids battled back,” Hall said.

The Pirates added one more run each in the fifth and seventh innings — the first on an RBI single by Riddle and the second on a fielder’s choice by Giorgis. But that wasn’t enough to get back into the game, and Thurston scored three insurance runs in the seventh, aided by two Marshfield errors.

Giorgis, who reached base five times and had two runs and two RBIs, was disappointed with the outcome.

“I think we all showed up ready to play,” he said. “One or two bad innings is what we’ve done lately and we need to stop.”

Dube was pleased to see his team rebound from its slow start.

“I thought we were still on the bus the first couple innings,” he said. “I thought the kids from Marshfield battled well. They gave us a good test. I tip my hat to Coach Hall and the kids.”

Urness had a single, double and triple and scored twice for the Colts. Spencer had a double and triple and scored three times. Thurston finished with 16 hits, six for extra bases.

Marshfield, meanwhile, had eight hits, including two each by Slack, Reed and Riddle, and did a good job getting runners on base. In addition to scoring eight times, the Pirates stranded 11 runners during the game.

“I was happy we got some guys on,” Hall said.

Now Marshfield will hope to turn more of those opportunities into runs when the Pirates host North Eugene in another league contest today.

 Thurston improved to 3-1, moving into a tie with North Eugene and Churchill for first place. Marshfield fell to 1-3.