The Bismarck Larks fell short to the St. Cloud Rox by a final score of 8-3 Thursday night in the first game of the series. Tonight’s game was presented by Scheels, the Larks will hope to even the series against the Rox tomorrow night.

What’s Next: The Bismarck Larks play the St.Cloud Rox at Bismarck Municipal Ballpark, the home of Dakota Community Bank and Trust Field on Friday, June 21 at 7:35 pm.

How It Happened: The St. Cloud Rox were ready to go from the start, a two-RBI single in the first inning from catcher Brendan Tinsman was two of his three RBI in the game. Tinsman and Jordan Barth both had four hits in the game for the Rox.

The Rox doubled their lead in the fourth on a two-run home run from Hance Smith to make it 4-0 through three and a half innings.

The Larks struggled to get things going offensively through the first five innings as they had just two hits in the game off of starting pitcher Carter Bosch who threw 5.2 innings scoreless.

The Larks then broke through with a run in the sixth inning courtesy of another RBI from David Mendham. With second and third with one out, Mendham produced an RBI groundout to make the score 4-1.

The Larks cut the deficit to two on an RBI single from Alex Peterson to right field which scored Cole Taylor from third in the 7th inning to get within two.

That was the closest the Larks got as the Rox added multiple insurance runs late in the ballgame against relief pitcher Brian Leonhardt. With one run in the 7th, one in the 8th and two in the ninth the Rox took an 8-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Larks scored one more time in the bottom half of the ninth inning on an RBI single from Cooper Bowman which scored Jacob Rogers from second to make it 8-3.

The Larks turned three double plays in the game defensively in what was the first time the Larks lost to the Rox this season.

Starting pitcher Evan Glew picked up the loss after throwing four innings and giving up four earned runs in what was his longest outing of the season.