DICKINSON, ND – The Badlands Big Sticks (31-38 overall, 13-21 second half) opened the final series with a loss to the Mankato MoonDogs (36-33 overall, 20-14 second half) after the bullpen lost control of the contest on Friday night.<\/p>\n
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The first three innings of the ballgame were scoreless thanks to Badlands starting pitcher Luke Hayhow (Texas State) and Mankato starter Evan Hughes, but both teams struck in the 4th inning.<\/p>\n
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Badlands plated the first run in the top of the 4th inning when Gavyn Schlotterback (Kansas) scored on a bizarre play. Schlotterback tagged from second base on a flyout by Samson Pugh (UT – Tyler), ending up on third base. The MoonDogs appealed by throwing to second base, which allowed Schlotterback to take off for home, beating the return throw and scoring.<\/p>\n
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Mankato immediately countered with a four-run inning in the bottom of the 4th. A two-run single from Jack Mislan started the scoring, then Kaleb Wilkey hit a two-run double right after to put the MoonDogs up 4-1.<\/p>\n
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A series of two-run innings followed for Mankato in the 5th and 6th innings. In the 5th, an RBI double from Sam Erickson got the first run, then a first and third base double steal scored Erickson later that inning.<\/p>\n
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In the bottom of the 6th, back-to-back doubles from Liam Ebbs and Erickson both scored a run, putting Mankato up 8-1.<\/p>\n
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The Big Sticks responded with a two-run frame of their own in the top of the 7th inning when Jackson Cionek (East Tennessee State) blasted a two-run home run over the left field wall to cut the lead to 8-3.<\/p>\n
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The MoonDogs got the runs back in the bottom of the 7th inning when Sean Griggs hit a two-run single to cap off the Mankato scoring at 10 runs, nine of them off the Big Sticks bullpen.<\/p>\n
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Badlands got a consolation run in the top of the 9th inning when Evan Mann (Odessa CC) scored on a wild pitch, finishing the scoring at 10-4.<\/p>\n
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The Big Sticks will head into the final game of the season on Saturday evening against the MoonDogs, with first pitch of the season finale scheduled for 5:35 p.m. MST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DICKINSON, ND – The Badlands Big Sticks (31-38 overall, 13-21 second half) opened the final series with a loss to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":18192,"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-18191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n