The 9-6 win is the Larks’ fifth in a row to start the year.

The Bismarck Larks won a back-and-fourth game in St. Cloud for their fifth straight victory to open the 2019 season on Saturday evening. The Larks came from behind in the top of the ninth inning to beat the St. Cloud Rox by a score of 9-6.

Brian Leonhardt’s debut for the Larks couldn’t have gone better for the left-handed first basemen from San Diego State after going 3-for-5 with five RBI to lead the Larks past the Rox.

What’s Next: The Larks will take on the St. Cloud Rox again on Sunday afternoon at 4:05pm for the second and final game of the series in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Tickets are available to the Larks Monday night matchup against the Willmar Stingers here.

How It Happened: The Larks jumped out to the lead in the second inning when in his first ever Lark at-bat, Brian Leonhardt hit a two-run line drive home run to right field to give the Larks the 2-0 lead. But, the Rox answered right back in the bottom of the second with three of their own against starting pitcher Dominic Arias which included four hits and three runs to make it 3-2 St. Cloud through two innings.

“No it hasn’t really (set in). I was just going out there trying to win, you know. It was fun, I got to do the Larks celebration when I got to second which I saw on Twitter actually. Which was cool for me. And I said, let’s keep this thing going,” Brian Leonhardt said on his debut.

The Larks then tied it up at three apiece when Ronnie McBride reached first on a dropped third strike and stole second before Clay Woeste singled him in for his first RBI of the night in the top of the third inning.

St. Cloud responded by retaking the lead in the fourth with a two-out rally that scored a run to make it 4-3 which was the score through six full innings.

Bismarck then tied it up in the seventh with a two-out rally of their own when Wyatt Ulrich and Cole Taylor singled and Ronnie McBride walked to load the bases. Clay Woeste then picked up his second RBI of the night after he walked with the bases loaded to tie the game.

With the game tied in the 8th inning, the Rox scored two against the Larks bullpen on an RBI double and an RBI sacrifice fly before the Larks rallied. And, they “rallied” in a big way by scoring five runs in the top of the ninth to keep their perfect season alive. In the 5-run ninth, Cole Taylor and Ronnie McBride reached on free bases while Woeste singled to load them before Brian Leonhardt came to the plate and delivered the eventual game-winning double that drove in three to make it 8-6 in favor of the Larks. Bismarck added another insurance run in the inning on a fielder’s choice that scored Leonhardt from third to increase their lead to 9-6.

Conner Tomasic then came in the game in the ninth inning and got into trouble before working out of a bases loaded nobody out jam to secure the Larks fifth straight victory to start the season. Starting pitcher Dominic Arias threw five innings and allowed nine hits and three earned runs while striking out five. Hunter Kloke went 2.1 innings before he departed for Trent Sidwell who went just a third of an inning as they both gave up one earned run on the night. The Larks are off to their best start ever!