The first-ever Strikeout-Cancer Baseball Tournament resulted in a long day of baseball on Thursday at Tony Williams Park in Highland.

The Marlboro Iron Dukes beat the New Paltz Huguenots, 6-4, in their first game of the day, and then finished the day with a 7-3 win over the host Huskies to win the tournament.

“Two wins in one day is going to be good for everybody,” Marlboro coach John Morrissey said. “Our pitchers kept us in the game today. They worked hard. There are some things to clean up, but I’m proud of these guys.”

The Huskies went 0-2 to the tournament, opening the day with a loss to the Huguenots.

“We’re a young team,” Highland coach John Manganiello said. “We had a long week with four games and four teams, and we played two very good teams today. Overall, we have some room for improvement, but we’re young.”

In the final game of the day, both starting pitchers went five innings, and Owen Schlagler got the win for Marlboro; allowing two runs on two hits, he struck out six. John Ryder got the win in the first game.

“They are two aces and they bring a lot to the table,” Marlboro’s Tom Benfer said. “They get us energized when they start off in the first inning and they strike people out. They have a lot of zip on their fastball and they have some good stuff other than their fastball.”

Schlagler cruised through the first four innings, but labored through the fifth, walking two batters, allowing one runner to score on a wild pitch.

He escaped the inning by getting George Salinovich to ground into a fielder’s choice. He looked like he was starting to tire late in the fifth, but Morrissey wanted to get him through five innings.

“I thought it was important to get him going,” Morrissey said. “He’s starting to stiffen up a little bit now, but it’s good to start extending them now. I wouldn’t want to go much further than we did with any of our pitchers today, but to get those pitch counts up and know that we have a plan in place for next week is a great feeling to have.”

Hunter Tomlin threw the first five innings for the Huskies, giving up a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Justin Piscopo.

Then, Tommy Benfer launched a booming home run to dead center field to break a 1-1 tie. Benfer also doubled twice in the first game.

“It felt good off the bat,” Benfer said. “It was a nice, low pitch. It was pretty surprising. I was just looking to drop the ball over the second baseman’s head. That’s really my approach when I get up.”

Thomlin hit Maxwell McKiever with a pitch and then walked Schlagler. Piscopo drove in McKiever with a sacrifice fly and then Matt Ciarimboli and Sal Montaperto each hit RBI singles.

“Besides the one inning, he kept us right there,” Manganiello said.

Montaperto had two RBIs in the first game. And Ciarimboli had two hits and an RBI.

The Iron Dukes beat the Valley Central Vikings, 6-2, on April 3. Ryder got the win with 11 strikeouts and hit three singles and drove in three runs. Schlagler had two hits and an RBI. Mitch Neer doubled.

“I think we’re starting to come together,” Benfer said. “We’re a really young team. We have a lot of sophomores and underclassmen starting, and once we get over that edge where we’re kind of nervous to start the season, I think we’re going to make a good run.”

The Huskies opened the week with an 11-7 win over Spackenkill on April 3. Leland Dubois had two hits and two RBIs, and Logan Ellison had two RBIs, two runs scored and a double. James Geishedel had two hits. Matt Dubois pitched seven innings, giving up one earned run.

Tomlin got the win in relief.

They also beat Ellenville.

“I got to see where we stand against some pretty top-notch teams,” Manganiello said. “We’ve got a little work to do, cleaning up some stuff, but I think we’re going to be OK.