DICKINSON, ND – The Badlands Big Sticks (25-24 overall, 7-8 second half) shut down the Minnesota Mud Puppies (6-16 overall, 1-7 second half) in their first matchup since 2024 in an impressive shutout victory 6-0 on Saturday night.

 

Ty Thomson (North Dakota State) brought his A+ arsenal to the mound, throwing a complete game one-hit shutout, earning nine strikeouts and allowing just three baserunners for the 2nd shutout of the season for Badlands.

 

In the bottom of the 1st inning, Dylon Myrow (Nebraska) did it himself by singling then stealing both 2nd and 3rd, which allowed him to score on the errant throw from the catcher, making it 1-0.

 

The Big Sticks bats continued the offense into the bottom of the 2nd which was started with a Derek Martinez (Arkansas State) walk followed by a Crew Secrist (Texas A&M – Corpus Christi) single that led Martinez to come around on a fielder’s choice, extending the lead to 2-0.

 

A scoreless 3rd inning was followed by Blake Beheler (Blinn JC) solo home run to left to start the bottom of the 4th for Badlands, which added another run of insurance.

 

Gavyn Schlotterback (Kansas) tallied an RBI in the bottom of the 6th inning on a dribbled single down the first base line, scoring Myrow.

 

While Thomson continued to shutdown the Mud Puppies, Myrow reached to start the bottom of  the 7th inning on a single and scored on the next at-bat off a sacrifice fly by Dakota Howard (Southeastern).

 

Blake Beheler started the final rally with a walk, making his way around the bases on a Martinez single to left to finish the scoring at 6-0.

 

Badlands pitching staff will look to build off the strong start from Thomson against the Mud Puppies, with the first pitch of game two scheduled Sunday afternoon at 4:35 p.m. MST.