The Bismarck Larks defeat the La Crosse Loggers for the second consecutive night on a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game by a final score of 5-4. Tonight’s game was presented by the Bismarck YMCA. The hero of the game was Brian Leonhardt who drove one deep into the night sky to win the game. The Larks pitchers performed great on the mound from starter Drew Mesecher and reliever Dominic Arias who was credited with the win.
What’s Next: The Larks and the Loggers will face off in the third game of the series on Saturday, August 3rd. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05pm. The Larks will hope to win the game and the series tomorrow evening.
How It Happened: The Larks scored first in the game with two runs in the bottom of the third inning. Brian Leonhardt who entered the game on a five-game hitting streak (four of which are multi-hit games) continued to swing a hot stick by singling with two outs to score the first two runs of the game.
The Loggers cut the deficit in half in the top of the fourth inning on an RBI single to make the score 2-1 Larks.
The Larks scored another run in the bottom of the fourth inning to increase their lead back to two. Jacob Rogers singled to right-center field scoring AJ DiFillipo from second making the score 3-1 through four innings.
Both teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning as well. The Loggers scored a run on an RBI groundout in the top half of the inning before Jacob Rogers made the score 4-2 on an RBI walk with the bases loaded.
The Loggers then tied the game in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI groundout and an RBI single to even the score at four.
Drew Mesecher gave up just two runs while tossing three strikeouts during his strong 6 inning performance on the mound.
Dominic Arias recorded back-to-back scoreless innings for the Larks while striking out three in the outing.
Once again, the Larks were locked into a tie game going to the bottom of the ninth inning. Clay Woeste led off with a swinging bunt infield single before he swiped his 36th bag of the season on the first pitch of Wyatt Ulrich’s at-bat. With Woeste at second, Ulrich bunted advancing Woeste to third base. Brian Leonhardt then came to the plate and shot a ball deep into right field scoring Woeste and capping off the Larks 5-4 victory.
Beyond the Boxscore: Clay Woeste stole another base this evening pushing his total on the year to 36 which still leads the Northwoods League lead. Zack Gregory was hit by a pitch for the sixteenth time this season, he remains second atop the Northwoods League in that category. Additionally, Brian Leonhardt got on base for the thirteenth consecutive game. It was his fifth game in a row with a hit and his fourth consecutive multi-hit game.
