Scooter Bynum belts his fourth home run of the season in the third straight loss for the Larks
MANKATO, MN – There's rough losses in the game of baseball and then there's heartbreaking losses. Unfortunately for the Larks they've experienced both in the last couple of days.
The Bismarck Larks were defeated by the Mankato MoonDogs by a final score of 4-3 serving as their third loss in a row.
Following an 11-1 loss the night before, the Larks (15-19) were walked off on as the MoonDogs (18-16) pushed a season-high win streak to three.
Frank Greco took the ball for the Larks for his sixth start of the season. Greco would end up putting together his best start of the year as he went five and one-thirds innings allowing just one run on five walks and two hits.
The Larks offense gave Greco two runs of support during his outing. In the top of the third inning, Quinn Irey scored on a Wyatt Ulrich ground ball that was misplayed by MoonDogs first baseman Toby Hansen. The next inning featured an RBI double from Brandon Lankford that scored Scooter Bynum to make it 2-0.
The lone run the MoonDogs scored off of Greco came in the bottom of the fifth when Daniel Amaral lined an RBI triple into the right field corner. Greco would keep the game at 2-1 as he got Kyle Cuellar to ground out to end the inning stranding Amaral at third.
On the other side, Tyler Lesley was the starting pitcher for the MoonDogs. Lesley threw seven innings giving up two runs (1 ER) allowing six hits while striking out four Larks hitters.
After Lesley's departure the Larks added an insurance run off the first bullpen arm they saw. Bynum took Addison Reed deep for his fourth home run of the season in the top of the eighth inning making it a 3-1 lead for Bismarck.
But the MoonDogs would not roll over.
Mankato scratched across a run in the bottom of the eighth inning off Larks reliever Jamie Kaye. Kenton Crews drove home Ryan Kreidler on an RBI double to make it 3-2.
With the score still in the Larks favor at 3-2, Cuellar stepped up for the MoonDogs to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Cuellar was the right guy at the right time as he blasted a 2-2 pitch from Nick Boyles for a game-tying home run.
The MoonDogs wanted nothing to do with extra innings either.
After one failed attempts with the bases loaded, CJ Schaeffer delivered an RBI flare single to hand the Larks a 4-3 walk off defeat.
Boyles recorded just one out in the bottom of the ninth in his second failed save attempt on the 2017 season.
The loss dropped the Larks to a season-high four games under .500 at 15-19.
The Larks head back to Bismarck to take on the Willmar Stingers for a two-game series.
First of tomorrow's ballgame is set for 7:35pm.
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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
