Photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont Martins' Spencer Chirpich trots to the dugout after scoring a run during Sunday afternoon's contest against the Worthington Cubs at Herb Wolf Field.

FAIRMONT – Derek Shoen’s two doubles proved the difference in the Fairmont Martins 4-0 victory over the Worthington Cubs on Sunday afternoon.

The extra base hits jump-started a pair of runs in the second and sixth innings at Herb Wolf Field, giving starting pitcher Jack Hested plenty of insurance to guide him through all seven innings in a dominant complete game performance. Hested finished with eight strikeouts while allowing three hits.

“Jack was great on the mound today,” Martins manager Levi Becker stated. “He made some good pitches to get out of a few jams. He’s always throwing strikes and uses his defense behind him when needed.”

The first threat Hested faced on the basepaths came in the contest’s opening frame. Worthington’s Triston Sauerbrei used the first pitch he saw to his advantage, driving the ball through the left side to get things started.

Walks from Easton Sauerbrei and Ethan Meyer loaded the bases for the Cubs a handful of batters later. Hested called his own name to escape the jam, forcing a weak pop-up from Eli Gaul right back to the mound for an easy catch. It was Hested’s only traction on the basepaths for the next few innings.

Shoen set the table for a few Martin runs in the home half of the second. Spencer Chirpich’s walk was followed by an RBI single from Ben Abel that shot through the right side of the field. Fairmont tacked on one more score after nine-hole hitter Josh Soelter’s grounder was bobbled by the Worthington middle infield.

The brief hiccup from Cubs starting pitcher Justin Saufley was followed by three straight innings of clean baseball. He allowed two hits over this stretch, striking out three and ending the fifth inning with a nifty pop-up catch near the Martins’ dugout.

These shutout frames opened the window for any sort of comeback. And in the following sixth inning, Worthington strung together its last gasp of offensive firepower to threaten a tie game.

It all started with two outs on the board. Daniel Castro’s shallow flyball proved to be out of reach for the Fairmont infield. Using his speed, and particularly, seeing no one manning second base, Castro advanced to immediately throw a runner in scoring position.

Worthington continued its small-ball approach after Meyer’s bunt proved again out of reach of the Martins defense. Runners were on the corners just like that. But momentum shifted four pitches later. Hested’s seventh strikeout was the biggest of the afternoon, fanning Gaul to retain his team’s momentum. The Cubs’ last-ditch effort came up just short.

Fairmont delivered an exclamation point in the home half of the sixth, started yet again by the bat of Shoen, to force Worthington to move to relief pitcher McKinley Busch. The lineup change reawakened the Martins’ offense for good.

“It’s always good to have Derek in the lineup,” Levi Becker said. “He’s a good hitter and will always give us a quality at-bat.”

Lance Becker’s hit-by-pitch was followed by a Chirpich grounder to second that drove in Shoen from third. Soelter picked up his second RBI slash of the afternoon with a single finding its way through the teeth of Worthington’s front line. The insurance runs were secured.

“It’s always nice to get some insurance runs late in the game to take a little stress off for the top of the seventh inning,” Levi Becker said. “We had struggled getting in some runners in earlier in the game when they were in scoring position.”

Hested delivered another three-up three-down inning to ultimately close out the contest. The Martins (4-2) have now won back-to-back contests for the second time this season. Fairmont will travel to Jackson this Wednesday to face the Bulls for the second time in two weeks. First pitch at Wacker Field is slated for 7:30 p.m.