By Max Gun, Radio Broadcaster

Waterloo, Iowa–The Battle Creek Bombers dropped game one of their series with the Waterloo Bucks Friday night losing 6-4.

Waterloo had to come from behind, though, as the Bombers scored first in the very first inning, when Christian Helsel (Penn State), hit a sacrifice fly to score Brennon Lund (BYU). Lund reached on a single and advanced to second base on a Lin Li (National Taiwan Sports University) single, and to third on a Cayce Bredlau (Austin Peay) fielder’s choice.

Waterloo came right back and scored a pair of runs in their half of the first. Luke Stratman (Lamar CC) led off the inning with a single, and then Zach McKinstry (Central Michigan) doubled to put runners at second and third with no outs. Zack Soria (Florida International) hit a sacrifice fly to score Sratman to make the score 1-1. After tagging to third base on the Soria sac fly, McKinstry was able to score on yet another sac fly, this time by Ryan Nagle (Illinois) to make it 2-1 Bucks.

Waterloo scored two more in the second inning. Adam McGinnis (Western Illinois) led off with a single, and Alex Boxwell (Minnesota) hit an RBI triple to make it 3-1. Boxwell’s college teammate, Matthew Stemper (Minnesota), hit a sac fly to score Boxwell to make the score 4-1 Bucks. There were four sacrifice fly’s in the game; three by Waterloo and one by Battle Creek.

The sea-saw game continued when the Bombers tied the game in the third inning. Lund walked and Li singled with one out to put runners on first and second. Then Bredlau hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners. With Helsel hitting, Waterloo starter Carson McPherson (Murray State) threw a wild pitch that allowed Lund to score making it a 4-3 ballgame. Helsel then singled sharply to left field to score Bredlau to tie the game at 4-4.

In the fifth inning, Waterloo regained the lead, this time for good. Nagle reached on a single, and scored on a McGinnis double to make it 5-4. The Bucks scored their final run in the seventh inning when McGinnis walked with the bases loaded against Bombers reliever Chase Tavonatti (Salt Lake Community College), making it a 6-4 game and that completed the scoring.

Min Hsia (National Taiwan Sports University) (2-3) took the loss for Battle Creek after pitching 6 innings, allowing 10 hits and 5 runs (3 earned). He left quite a few pitches up in the zone that the Bucks were able to drive to the outfield for base hits.

McPherson (3-2) picked up the win for Waterloo. He pitched 5 innings and allowed just 2 earned runs, while striking out three Bombers.

The Bombers, now 0-3 to open the second half and 13-25 overall, look to salvage the final game of this four-game road trip on Saturday night. First pitch from Waterloo is at 5:05 p.m. CT/6:05 p.m. EST.