Green Bay 8 – Madison 3

Matt Argyropoulos hit his first home run of the season at Jones Sign Field at Joannes Stadium, to propel Green Bay to an 8-3 victory over Madison in the Northwoods League first half season finale Thursday night. Argyropoulos (Washington State) took the first pitch of the fourth frame and smoked it over the wall in right-center insuring the Bullfrogs with a victory. Green Bay exploded for 14 hits on the night, including three doubles in the victory. The Bullfrogs snapped a five-game skid to finish the first half of the Northwoods League season at 14-19. Green Bay begins the second half, along with the rest of the league, on Friday in Waterloo, Iowa, against the Bucks. Chuck Lukanen (Northern Illinois) earned the win in six innings of work. He scattered five hits and allowed one run, while striking out four. With his fifth victory of the season, he pushes his way to the top of the Northwoods League win column. Riley Henricks (Portland) led Green Bay with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate to go along two runs scored and his 10th double of the season. Four other Bullfrogs recorded two hits on the night, while Joel Hutter (Des Moines Area CC) tallied three RBI in the game. Tyson Blaser (Iowa) recorded a pair of hits during the contest to lead Madison (19-15) at the plate and Jacob Esch (Georgia Tech) drove in a pair of runs.

Thunder Bay 6 – St. Cloud 1

Thunder Bay ran its winning streak to a season high three games with a 6-1 victory over St. Cloud.  Randy Mower (St. Joseph’s) pitched seven strong innings to improve his record to 2-3.  The lefthander allowed six hits and one unearned run, while striking out two. Curtis Wagner (Santa Clara) went 2-4 for the Border Cats including a two-run home run, his first of the season.  New Mexico teammates Cameron Smith and Adam Courcha and Derek Hamblen (Belmont) all collected two hits as the Border Cats ended the first half with a 9-25 record. Zach Maxfield (Florida Gulf Coast) went 2-3 for the River Bats (13-21).  Zac Richard (Xavier) took the loss for St. Cloud to drop to 0-1.  Richard allowed five hits and three runs (two earned) over three innings.

Brainerd 4 – Mankato 3

Brainerd’s Stephen Wickens delivered daggers to the MoonDogs both offensively and defensively Thursday evening. His two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning proved to be the winning hit and his diving stab of a Kyle Knudson groundball with the tying run on in the ninth secured the lead as Brainerd dealt the MoonDogs a 4-3 setback at Franklin Rogers Park. Wickens (FGCU) gave the Lunkers (16-17) their first lead with his big hit. With John Brebbia (Elon) on in relief, Wickens’ shot to right field easily scored the runner from third. Kenny Held (New Mexico) came up firing from right, but his throw took a high hop on Xorge Carillo (Arizona State) allowing Will Piwinica-Worms (Duke) to score for the 4-3 lead. The MoonDogs (23-10) put the tying run on third with one out in the bottom half of that frame. With the infield drawn in, Wickens dove to his right on a hard hit ball by Knudson. It prevented Danny Miller (Minnesota State) from scoring from third, as Drew Smith (Barton CC) went on to record his seventh save of the summer by striking out the next batter. Kyle Knudson (Minnesota) recorded a 3-4 evening for the MoonDogs, while Miller posted two hits and two RBI. Wickens was the only Lunker to record multiple hits as T.J. Berge (Northern Colorado) and Michael Kvasnicka (Minnesota) also had RBI. The MoonDogs got off to an early 2-0 lead, courtesy of two Lunkers errors on the first two batters of the game. With AJ Pettersen (Minnesota) on third and Tony Strazzara (San Diego) on first, Miller lofted a sacrifice fly to left center for the first run of the frame. Later on with two outs and the bases loaded, Held worked a long at-bat for a walk and the two-run Moondogs lead. After Kvasnicka (Minnesota) cut the lead to 2-1 with his run-scoring single in the second, Miller responded in the bottom half. He came up with his second RBI of the night, as his soft ground ball found its way down the third base line, bringing home Pettersen for a 3-1 Dogs lead. Berge would drive a deep sacrifice fly to center in the third to make it a 3-2 MoonDogs lead before Wickens came up with the deciding hit three innings later. Ryan Demmin (UW-Oshkosh) took the loss (4-2) for Mankato, as he allowed all four runs, just one of which was earned, in six and two-thirds innings. He struck out five and allowed six hits. Ryan Hawthorne (Loyola Marymount) earned his second win (2-0) by striking out four in two innings of scoreless relief.

Rochester 4 – Duluth 1

One night after Drew Gagnon (Long Beach State) pitched seven, one-hit innings, Jeff Burleson (Oral Roberts) tossed seven shutout innings of his own, allowing just three hits and striking out nine as the Honkers completed the series sweep with a 4-1 win over Duluth. The bulk of the offense came from the bat of Corey Jones (Cal State Fullerton), who blasted a pair of home runs to increase his league-leading total to 10. With the win the Honkers wrap up the first half at 19-13, while Duluth finished at 13-20. Burleson was simply filthy throughout his time on the mound, and was able to throw all his pitches for strikes. He was never in real trouble, and even struck out four consecutive batters at one point. The win improved his record to 1-1 on the season. Aaron Dunsmore (Dayton) pitched the eighth and the first bit of the ninth, allowing a solo home run to lead off the ninth and break up the shutout and end Duluth’s streak of 26 straight innings without scoring a run. Arik Sikula (Marshall) came on to get the final out and earned his eighth save. Duluth’s starter, Jeff Rydman (Campbell) although he gave up four runs, tossed a complete game and didn’t walk a batter, although he gave up 10 hits and took the loss to 0-2 on the season. Just like the night before, the Honkers backed a great pitching performance with a pair of long balls. Both came from Corey Jones, starting with a two run shot to deep right field in the third inning and start the scoring to give the Honkers the 2-0 lead. The Honkers would score another in the fourth when P.J. Sequeira (Oral Roberts) came home on a double by Drew Beuerlein (UNLV) to make it 3-0, and Jones capped the Honkers scoring in the fifth. This time his solo blast to right cleared the scoreboard and banged off the roof of a bungalow nestled behind it.  Jones led the Honkers offense with a 3-for-4 day, including the two homers and scoring two runs and three RBI. Beuerlein finished with two hits and an RBI of his own. The one run for Duluth came on a home run by Jared Womack (Oklahoma State) in the ninth inning. He finished 1-for-4.

Battle Creek 7 – La Crosse 2

The Battle Creek Bombers were able to salvage one game of the two game series Thursday night at Copeland Park in La Crosse in front of 3,130 fans to snap the Loggers five game winning streak.  Both the Bombers and Loggers finish the first half of the season with 21 wins with the Bombers finishing second in the division with one less loss than La Crosse. The scoring started early with Battle Creek’s Josh Valle (Marshall) driving in two runs on his first inning RBI double, but the Loggers answered back quickly with two runs of their own on and two run home run by Brandon Meredith (San Diego St.).  The scoring halted for a while until the bottom of the fourth inning when Aaron Gates worked his magic once again with a two RBI single.  The Bombers got one run back in the fifth inning and would eventually take the lead in the sixth inning where they scored two un-earned runs on some sloppy Logger infield play.  Battle Creek would then make sure they put the game away in the top of the ninth inning scoring four runs capped off by a two RBI double by Joe Van Meter (VCU). Leading the way offensively for the Bombers was third baseman Joe Van Meter who went 3-4 with 4 RBI’s and a run scored to help put away the Loggers.  Picking up his first win of the season for Battle Creek was Tim Mowry (W. Michigan) who pitched 2.2 innings giving up only one hit and striking out three.  Brandon Meredith of the Loggers went 2-4 with a home run and 2 RBI’s.

Alexandria 5 – Waterloo 1

Curtis Hudson (Elgin CC) won his Beetles debut on Thursday night, tossing six scoreless innings as Alexandria completed the sweep of Waterloo, winning 5-1.  Jerod Wagoner (Butler) took the loss for the Bucks, falling to 0-3 on the season.  It’s the fourth straight win for the Beetles; Waterloo drops their fifth in a row and finishes the first half 10-23. The Beetles lead from start to finish, taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth.  Wagoner started the game by setting down the first eleven batters he faced.  Then, Keith Castillo (USC) lined a base hit into right field and Tim Roberson (FGCU) doubled to right.  With two out and a two-strike count, Jayson Langfels (Eastern Kentucky) delivered a base knock into left. In the bottom of the fourth, Waterloo responded with a Christian Griffiths double to start the inning.  Then, after a sacrifice bunt, Josh Lyon (Indiana) hit a fly ball to right field.  Griffiths tagged up but Tyler Mills (Michigan) threw a two-hopper to the plate to cut down the runner. Mills’ big night was just beginning. In the seventh, with runners on the corners and two out, Mills picked up his first hit as a Beetle, a two-RBI double to left field.  Again in the ninth in a 3-1 ballgame, Mills drove another two-RBI double to right field, cushioning the lead for his Wolverine teammate Matt Miller (Michigan) who picked up his third save of the season. Mills finished the game 2-4 with two doubles and four runs batted in. In his debut, Hudson went six innings, allowing only four hits and no runs, while walking two and striking out five.  In the losing effort, Wagoner tossed seven innings, giving up five hits and three runs, walking two and striking out three.

Wisconsin 3 – Eau Claire 0

The Wisconsin Woodchucks closed out the season’s first half in admirable fashion, taking down the South Division first half champion Eau Claire Express 3-0 Thursday evening in Wausau. The Woodchucks made a statement early on, scoring the first run of the game as the ‘Chucks first three batters of the contest reached safely. Express starter Joseph Lopez responded in dominant form, striking out the next three hitters to end the threat. The game would stay 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth, when Jeremy Richter (UW-Stevens Point) launched a Lopez fastball over the left-center field wall to extend the ‘Chucks lead to 2-0. The fans were on their feet again in the seventh as new arrival Khayyan Norfork crushed a solo home run over the left field wall to make it 3-0. ‘Chucks starter Gabe Sandersius (Dallas) pitched all the way until the final out, when he turned things over to Joey Hainsfurther (Baylor) who struck out Drew Heithoff to end the game. Sandersius threw a gem for the Woodchucks, allowing just two hits in 8.2 innings of shutout baseball. Hainsfurther picked up his first save, becoming the sixth different pitcher to record a save for the Woodchucks. Lopez took the loss after allowing three runs on five hits while striking out 10 batters over seven innings, while Ryan Kiel threw the final inning in relief. Ben Long (UW-Milwaukee) and Norfork finished the day as the only batters to record multiple hits, in a game that featured just seven total hits.