SOUTH EL MONTE — It may not have been the cleanest game, but Marshall’s baseball team wasn’t going to apologize for its 8-5 victory over South El Monte in eight innings Wednesday.

The teams are now tied for first place in the Mission Valley League with two games to play.

Marshall’s Adan Castro limped to the plate in the eighth inning after injuring himself an inning earlier. He hit a double to left to drive in two runs for a 7-5 lead, and Marshall added another run in the inning to make it 8-5.

“I felt a little pop in my Achilles and maybe it’s a little calf strain, but I had to suck it up and come through for my team,” Castro said of his go-ahead RBIs. “It’s an incredible feeling. We definitely wanted it more than them, and that’s how it’s going to go for the rest of the season.”

Marshall lost to South El Monte 6-5 in eight innings in their first meeting, and Wednesday it did not want to let another opportunity get away.

Trevor Lain did his part, with three doubles and two RBIs. Lain’s double in the eighth inning put runners on second and third, and Castro’s two-run double followed.

“We lost to them two straight years in a row, and every time we start losing, we kind of give up,” Lain said. “Today I felt like we didn’t give up and everyone came together, and we won.”

Marshall improved to 15-5-1 overall and 9-1 in league, and South El Monte suffered its first league loss to drop to 17-7 and 9-1.

Marshall coach Joe Federico told his team afterward that it was one of those “who wanted it more” type of games.

South El Monte committed six errors and Marshall committed five.

“They made more errors than we did,” Federico said. “We outhit them (12 to 5), but they’re so scrappy, they just keep coming back and coming back.”

South El Monte pitcher Christian Ortega scattered nine hits over six innings with five strikeouts. He gave up three earned runs.

Caleb Thatcher started and went five innings for Marshall. He allowed four hits with nine strikeouts before giving way to Nate Callaway to pitch the final three innings. Callaway gave a run in the seventh inning that tied the score.

Marshall jumped in front when Ryan Padullo lined a two-out single to left that scored Castro from first on a fielding error for a 1-0 lead.

Thatcher was sailing along through three innings, but he got himself into trouble in the fourth with a pickoff attempt for an error, and another throwing error allowed South El Monte to tie the score 1-1. It appeared Thatcher would limit the damage after the Eagles loaded the bases. He got back-to-back strikeouts and induced South El Monte’s Armando Huizar to hit a routine grounder to first. But an error at first allowed two runs to score; the Eagles added another run on a double steal for a 4-1 lead.