David Salgueiro’s second consecutive three-hit night wasn’t enough as the Larks fail to win back-to-back games.
BISMARCK, ND – The Larks will have to play the waiting game as they failed for a third consecutive time to complete a series sweep.
The Bismarck Larks dropped the series finale to the La Crosse Loggers losing 4-2.
Just as the Larks (3-5) broke out offensively last night, the Loggers (2-6) combined for 12 hits to boost them to their first victory in four attempts. The Loggers were led by OF Yahir Gurrola (University of North Florida) as he went 3-5 with an RBI double in the top of the fourth and the go-ahead RBI single in the sixth.
Although Larks starting pitcher Alex Ross walked five batters, he did enough to give his team a chance to win. Ross through five innings allowing two runs on six hits while striking out six hitters.
The Larks got off to a quick start scoring two runs in the first two innings of the ballgame. Noah Sadler lined an RBI double to the left-center field wall to score Wyatt Ulrich in the first and David Salgueiro hit an RBI double of his own to score Michael Pereznegron in the second.
After a quiet third inning between the two teams and the score tied at two, the Loggers battled back with two runs of their own to tie up the game. La Crosse received an RBI single from ninth placed hitter Mike Ferri and an RBI double from Gurrola.
Unbeknownst to the Larks at the time, these two runs would commence a stretch of four unanswered runs by the Loggers. The go-ahead RBI would come off the bat of Gurrola in the top of the sixth off Larks reliever Nick Boyles (UNC-Asheville). A second run off Boyles in as many innings came via a double from Conner Perry (University of Pittsburgh) scoring Taylor Sanagorski.
The Loggers pitchers turned out to be the story of the night.
Loggers starting pitcher Mason McMahon (UW-La Crosse) put together a fine outing as he settled down after giving up the two early runs. All in all, McMahon went six and two-thirds innings while giving up two earned runs striking out five.
The Loggers bullpen did not let up by any means. The duo of Charlie Fletcher (William & Mary University) and Grant Ford (University of Nevada, Reno) threw a combined two and a third innings allowing just one hit with four total strikeouts.
As for the Larks, baserunning errors turned out to be the story of the night.
The baserunning faux pas began with no outs in the bottom of the second when Salgueiro got caught in a run down trying to advance from second to third on an Ulrich ground ball to the shortstop.
The blunders on the basepaths continued as Salguiero found himself caught yet again trying to advance from second to third on another Ulrich ground ball to the shortstop. This time it was it was with no outs in the bottom of the fifth.
Perhaps the most crucial baserunning mistake came in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and the Larks hottest hitter in Salgueiro standing at the plate. Noah Sadler got caught too far off third as catcher Korey Lee (University of California, Berkeley) threw behind him to Loggers third baseman Ryan Mantle (Jefferson CC) to tag him out.
The Larks would put something together in the bottom of the ninth as Cullen Smith led off with a walk and Salgueiro laced another hit, a two-out single. The threat would finish as Ulrich grounded out sharply to the shortstop to end the game.
Salgueiro followed up his Northwoods League Hitter of the Night performance last night with another 3-4 outing. Salgueiro went 6-8 throughout the two games boosting his average from a .143 mark prior to the series to a .310 mark after the series.
The winning pitcher of the game was Mason McMahon. The losing pitcher of the game was Nick Boyles.
The Larks will look to bounce back as they welcome in the Willmar Stingers tomorrow night with the first pitch set at 7:05pm.
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The Bismarck Larks are apart of the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 170 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play
