The Bismarck Larks rebounded from the Mankato series in a big way with a 9-4 victory over the St.Cloud Rox. Today’s game was presented by BNC National Bank. AJ Difillipo was the shining star at the plate as he had four RBI, his second triple on the season and a double in the game. The Larks saw another efficient outing from Gavin Rogers as he gave up just two earned runs and dished out six strikeouts in 5.1 innings on the mound.  

What’s Next: The Bismarck Larks will finish out the home series against St.Cloud on July 7th at 7:05 pm. The Larks will hope to sweep St.Cloud tomorrow evening. If you attended today’s game and want to claim your free donut visit the Bearscat Bakehouse location in Bismarck. The Mandan location will be closed but bring your ticket down to the Bismarck Bearscat Bakehouse to claim your free donut! 

How It Happened: The Larks got off to another hot start in the first inning, scoring the first three runs of the ballgame. AJ DiFillipo drove in the first two runs with a double to left center field with the bases loaded. Matt Warkentin then followed that up with an RBI groundout to increase the Larks lead to 3-0 after one inning of play.

The St. Cloud Rox then got on the board with two runs of their own off of starting pitcher Gavin Rogers in the third inning to decrease the deficit to just one run. Back-to-back singles started the inning before an RBI single from Jordan Barth and a sacrifice fly from Garrett Delano made it a 3-2 game.

The starting pitchers for both teams then settled in during the middle innings as neither team pushed a run home over a three inning span. The Larks then extended their lead to two with another RBI from Matt Warkentin who doubled off the center field wall in the 6th inning to put the Larks ahead 4-2.

The Larks then sent eight batters to the plate in the 7th inning and added four insurance runs. AJ DiFillipo drove in two more runs on his second triple of the season in the 7th for the first two runs of the inning to double his RBI total on the day. Alex Peterson then drove in DiFillipo from third with a single to increase the lead to 7-2. Clay Woeste then gave the fans what they wanted with a two-out RBI single to deliver the 8th run of the game.

The Larks added one more run in the 8th inning with an RBI single from Wyatt Ulrich in the 8th inning to cap off the victory.

The Rox scored two in the 9th inning but the Larks closed it out to secure their first victory of the second half with a final score of 9-4.

Beyond the Boxscore: Zack Gregory was back in the lineup after a collision left him sidelined for over a week. Gregory was back to business as he reached 3 out of 5 times in the game by the way of three walks. This increased his total to 40 walks on the year which is leading the Northwoods League. Gregory increased his OBP to .544 which is higher than any other batter in the league by more than 50 points. Wyatt Ulrich scored twice in the game to up his tally to 42 on the year which is also the best in the league. Clay Woeste stole his 18th base of the season which is tied for second in the league. DiFillipo’s triple was the 13th of the season for the Larks which is tied for first in the Northwoods League. The Larks lead the league in walks as well with 235 on the season thus far. Additionally, the Larks have the highest on-base percentage in the league at .397, have scored the most runs in the league with 283 and have the most RBI with 229 as well.