Written by Kyle Tatelbaum

BISMARCK, ND – Bismarck’s Pitching Was Phenomenal, Holding Mankato to One Earned Run on Three Hits.

The MoonDogs struck first in the second inning, scoring their lone earned run on a pair of walks, a wild pitch, and a fielder’s choice from Riley Jackson (Florida State University). The Larks responded in the bottom half of the frame, taking the run right back after Cesar Franco (Western Illinois) singled to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and passed ball, allowing Joey Baran (Western Kentucky) to drive in the first of his three RBIs on the evening on a sacrifice fly. 

Mankato responded with three runs- all unearned- in the top of the third. Ryan Ward (University of San Diego) reached on a mishandled fly ball to right field, followed by Bray Delamielleure (Florida State University) who reached on an errant throw from the Larks shortstop trying to turn a double play. After the succeeding two batters were retired via strikeout, the bases were loaded after Gabriel Miranda (Texas Christian University) was hit by a pitch. One strike away from escaping the jam, Zach Crandall (University of Utah) drove in two on a single to right field, and Casey Sorg (Bellarmine University) found a patch of grass in shallow right field for an RBI single. 

Bismarck answered again in the bottom half of the frame, crawling within a run. Erick Dessens (Paradise Valley CC) extended his hit streak to seven games on a single up the middle to lead off the inning. A batter later, Zach Daudet (Cal Poly) was hit by a pitch and Dessens scored on a wild pitch before Brady Krzciok (Central Michigan) and Cesar Franco drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. The Larks cut the deficit to one after Jaron Cotton (University of Nebraska) drew the third consecutive walk of the inning with the bases full. 

After three scoreless innings from both teams, the Larks broke through with five runs in the seventh. CJ Richmond (Purdue) recorded his second hit of the day on a single to center field to start the inning and Brady Krzciok followed with a sharply hit single to right. Cesar Franco loaded the bases on his second walk as Davis Baker (University of Pennslyvania) entered the game and lined a ball off the pitcher’s glove and into the outfield to tie the game. Joey Baran brought home the go-ahead run on a walk and Michael Davinni (University of Utah) extended the lead on a deep sacrifice fly to left field. Erick Dessens extended his RBI streak to five on his third hit of the day, stretching the Bismarck lead to 7-4. The fifth and final run of the inning came home after the Mankato second basemen mishandled a potential double-play ball. 

Bismarck added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth initiated by a leadoff walk from Kyle Hvidsten (Western Kentucky) who freshly entered the game. Brady Krzciok notched his second hit of the evening on a single up the middle as Cesar Franco scored Hvidsten from second on his third hit and fifth time reaching base. With Krzciok on third, Joey Baran legged out his first hit of the evening on a groundball to the first basemen giving the Larks a 10-4 lead.

The Larks bullpen tied the MoonDogs down in the latter half, allowing no runs and one hit through four innings. Tristan Delapante (Bismarck State College) entered in the sixth and delivered two innings while striking out one and walking one. Larson Sholtz (Spartanburg Methodist College) pitched a clean inning with a strikeout and Haldon Craig (Doane College) slammed the door in the ninth, striking out the final two batters he faced. 

The Larks are at home tomorrow for the finale against the MoonDogs before hosting the first-place Stingers for two games on Thursday and Friday. https://bismarck-larks.nwltickets.com/