Larks offense provides second consecutive double-digit hit performance but fall short to the Huskies

BISMARCK, ND – It was once said that it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, but rather the size of the fight in the dog.

The Bismarck Larks were defeated by the Duluth Huskies on Friday night by a final score of 9-7.

The Huskies (15-16) showed a lot of fight tonight as they fended off a resilient Larks (15-17) team and erased an early 3-0 deficit.

The stars of the show tonight were both the Larks and Huskies offense. Huskies starter Nick Scheidler was only able to last two and one-thirds innings as he gave up five earned runs on the night.

Larks starter Alex Ross breezed through his first two innings but was met by a hungry Huskies offense in the top of the third inning. In that top of the third, the Huskies would tag Ross for five runs and seven hits making him throw over 35 pitches forcing him to be taken out of the game.

After two and half innings and the score at 5-3 in favor of the Huskies, the resilience of the Larks kicked in. The offense would tack on two runs and tie up the contest thanks to a bases loaded walk by Newt Johnson and a sacrifice fly from Luke Horanski.

Following a scoreless fourth inning for both squads, just one of the three innings of its kind, the Huskies showcased their desire to win this baseball game and bounce back from a big loss last night. Chase Strumpf belted his first home run of the season and Luke Roskam added an RBI sacrifice fly all off of Larks reliever Carson Selin.

The very next frame featured another first home run of the season. Larks DH Ryan Anderson took Huskies reliever Austin Truso deep over the left field wall in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the lead in half at 7-6.

The Larks would be granted a chance to tie up the game in the fifth as Horanski and Cooper Coldiron delivered a pair of singles. However, Connor Perry struck out swinging and then Mitch Gallagher popped out to the second baseman to end the inning.

With the score at 7-6, the Huskies added some necessary insurance runs in the top of the sixth inning. A wild pitch from Selin scored Kyle Hubbuch and Matt Frazier would record his one and only hit of the series, an RBI single scoring Augie Isaacson.

But within the very framework of the Larks lies their “never say die” mentality. They would bring it out in attempt to complete a comeback.

Austin Paschke reached because of a throwing error by the first baseman Hubbuch with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. After a wild pitch moving Paschke from first to second, Noah Sadler sliced an opposite field RBI double into the left field corner off Huskies reliever Joe Gonrowski to make it a 9-7 ballgame.

Scooter Bynum would draw a full count walk following Sadler’s double bringing the game winning run in Anderson up to the plate.

But within the very framework of the Huskies lies a rather dominant bullpen.

The man at the helm of that bullpen? It’s Kevin Folman.

Folman dominated the Larks for a second consecutive time in as many appearances. He would not only strike out Anderson on three pitches to end the threat in the eighth but would also sit the Larks down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Huskies used five relief pitchers in the 9-7 victory over the Larks. Those relief pitchers pitched six and two-thirds innings giving up two runs with only one of them being earned.

Jeff Lindgren did make his eleventh appearance as a Lark pitching a season-high three innings. In Lindgren’s three innings of work he did not allow a hit, he struck out two, and he escaped a one out, runners on second and third situation.

Another Illinois State Redbird in Sadler continued to show his strong presence in the middle of the lineup by having a second consecutive multi-hit game with a three-hit performance.

The Larks will hit the road as they head to Mankato to take on the MoonDogs with a 7:05pm first pitch from Franklin Rogers Park.

Follow the live action on mixlr.com/larksbaseball as Troy Weiman and Toph Buzzard will be on the call.

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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