Larks win 15-2 on the back of Wyatt Ulrich’s monster game!

The Bismarck Larks opened their season in historic fashion with a 15-2 win over the Eau Claire Express Tuesday night after putting up a franchise record 10 runs in one inning that put the game out of reach in the 8th. Wyatt Ulrich returned in a big way after going 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs batted in while also scoring three runs to lead the Lark offense to a big opening day victory.

What’s Next: The Larks take on Eau Claire again tonight at 7:05pm for the second game of the series. We still have tickets left. Get them here!

How It Happened: The Larks got on the board first in the bottom half of the first inning after Clay Woeste was hit by the first pitch he saw before stealing second base. Ulrich then walked to make it first and second before the Larks showcased their speed again with a double steal of second and third, when the throw to third base went into left field, Woeste scored and Ulrich moved up to third base. Ulrich came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning to make it 2-0 after one.

In the second inning, Jack Chernow and Clay Woeste walked to lead off the inning before Ulrich grounded into a fielder’s choice to second making it first and third before Jacob Rogers struck a sacrifice fly into deep left center field making it 3-0, the Larks scored their fourth run of the game on an RBI walk from Zack Gregory that scored Ulrich.

The Express cut the 4-0 lead in half when Adam Krajewski hit a two-out, two-RBI single that made it 4-2 after two and a half innings.

The Larks picked up their fifth run in the fifth inning after Ronnie McBride lead off the inning with the first hit of the game for the Larks which was a double to left field before coming around to score from second base on a ground ball to shortstop after he took off for third on the pitch.

Eric Hildebrand went five plus innings in his first start for the Larks picking up the victory after only giving up two earned runs, three hits while striking out two Express batters. Hildebrand struggled to throw strikes in the middle innings of his outing but worked himself out of a couple of jams to reserve the quality start.

Dalton Mitchell was the first out of the bullpen for the Larks, in his first appearance on the year Mitchell retired the first five batters he faced and finished with three shutout innings while giving up just two hits and striking out three.

The onslaught for the Larks began in the bottom half of the 8th inning when Chernow and Woeste got on with one out before Ulrich singled to left field driving in Chernow. On the play, Woeste went first to third showcasing his speed which allowed Ulrich to advance to second on an error by the left fielder who bobbled the ball. Jacob Rogers was hit by a pitch to load the bases before the Larks picked up their seventh and eighth runs of the game on wild pitches before Gavin Rogers singled in Jacob Rogers with an infield single to short. Brody Tanksley doubled in two runs with the bases loaded later in the inning to make it 11-2 prior to AJ DiFillipo walking to load the bases again before two runs came across on an error committed by Eau Claire’s second baseman Troy Beilsmith to make it 13-2. The Larks then topped it off to complete the 10 run inning with another Wyatt Ulrich single to left field that plated two runs and added to Ulrich’s stellar night at the plate and on the bases.

Conner Tomasic came in to finish off the ninth where he created a double play to end the game sending the fans home happy. The Larks used their speed to put pressure on the Express early on in the game before finally breaking it open in the 8th inning.

Inside the Boxscore: The Larks stole four bases in the game, Woeste had two, Ulrich with one and Gregory with one. Bismarck was actually being no-hit through the first four innings even though they had  put up four runs. Larks only picked up seven hits in the game which was only one more than their counterpart, despite putting up 15 runs.