DICKINSON, ND – The Badlands Big Sticks (30-35 overall, 12-19 second half) losing streak was snapped due to a breakout performance from Blake Beheler (Blinn JC), who led the way in the 8-7 victory over the Willmar Stingers (35-30 overall, 19-10 second half) on Monday night.<\/p>\n
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A cold night in August brought heat to the bats throughout the entire game as 19 hits were recorded between the two sides.<\/p>\n
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The scoring started in the bottom of the 1st inning. In just one pitch, Dakota Howard (Southeastern) doubled to start the bats off which was followed by a single from Beheler, scoring Howard from second. The offense continued with another single from Gavyn Schlotterback (Kansas) to string the first three batters with a hit.<\/p>\n
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A Samson Pugh (UT – Tyler) flyout down the right field line advanced the runners to second and third base, which was capitalized on with a single from Cougar Cooke (Arkansas State), scoring Beheler and making it a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
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The lead was not held for long, as in the top of the 2nd inning, Levi Maddela hit a 2-run home run to tie it up at 2-2 for the Stingers.<\/p>\n
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In the bottom of the 2nd inning, back-to-back singles from Ryder Hernandez (Ohio State) and Evan Mann (Odessa CC) led the inning off. A fielder’s choice from Schlotterback scored the opening run in the inning, which allowed for the double from Pugh to add two more that cleared the bases to make it 5-2.<\/p>\n
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In the top of the 3rd, Merrick Rapoza continued his surge against the Big Sticks, getting his first of two RBIs on a single, making it 5-3.<\/p>\n
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Both Mason Lunzman (Dickinson State) and Brandon Mikos tossed a scoreless 4th inning, then Willmar\u2019s Rapoza singled in the top of the 5th inning to score David Estrada, which made it 5-4.<\/p>\n
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Badlands immediately responded in the bottom of the 5th inning. Cooke started a rally himself with a triple and tagged up on a shallow pop fly from Moses Dokes (Dickinson State), scoring to extend it to 6-4.<\/p>\n
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After a Howard walk, Beheler hit a towering home run to center field to add more insurance to make it 8-4.<\/p>\n
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In the top of the 7th, Willmar made it a similar feeling to the games in the past by cutting the lead thin. An error off a pop up started the scoring off, scoring Paris Pridgen, then a couple walks led to another run. The final run came off a groundball from Maddela that scored Estrada, which ended up capping the scoring at 8-7.<\/p>\n
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Badlands breaks the losing skid and makes it their third consecutive victory over the Stingers, with first pitch for game two set for Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. MST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DICKINSON, ND – The Badlands Big Sticks (30-35 overall, 12-19 second half) losing streak was snapped due to a breakout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":18173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n