The Bismarck Larks lost a hard fought, heartbreaking 12-11 game to split the two-game series with the Duluth Huskies. Farmers Union Insurance presented tonight’s back and forth battle between the Larks and the Huskies.  The Larks put on quite a display on offense, their patience at the plate is what stood out most as Larks batters walked eighteen times. The defense made some of the best plays of the season for the Larks but they couldn’t recover from the huge seven run 3rd inning.

What’s Next: The Bismarck Larks will again take on the Duluth Huskies, this time on the road at Wade Stadium. First pitch on June 25 is scheduled for 6:35 pm. The Larks will look to recover from tonight’s loss over the course of tomorrow’s off day. This is the first time the Larks will have a day of rest this season.

How It Happened: The Duluth Huskies got on the board first in the second and third innings of the game. The big seven-run 3rd inning for the Huskies put them up 8-0. The biggest hit of the 3rd for the Huskies was a three-run inside the park home run that got lost in right field ivy. The home run was hit by Ramon Enriquez which built the lead to 5-0 at that point in the inning.

With the Larks trailing by eight runs, they struck back with two in the bottom half of the third courtesy of a wild pitch that scored Clay Woeste before Brody Tanksley drove in a run with his 6th double of the season to make it 8-2 after three innings of play.

The Larks scored two more in the fourth to cut the deficit in half. Jacob Rogers who continued his excellence at the plate in his fourth consecutive multi-hit game had a two-out, two-RBI single once again in tonight’s game to make it 8-4 through four innings.

Two doubles led to two runs for the Huskies in the 6th inning to increase their lead to 10-4. Putz and Lozano drove in the two runs of the inning.

In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Zack Gregory hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded with one out before an RBI walk from Clay Woeste scored the second run of the inning to make it 10-6. The Larks had the tying run at the plate that inning but stranded three runners on.

The Huskies then doubled their lead for the second time in the game scoring two in the 8th inning to make it 12-6.

The Larks then had their biggest inning of the game with three runs scored in the bottom of the 8th inning. Zack Gregory added two more RBI on the day with a two-out single for the first two runs of the inning. Gregory then stole second and Bowman scored from third after an overthrow went into the outfield to cut the deficit to three. The Larks stranded two more in the inning and once again had the tying run at the plate before the inning ended abruptly. The score was 12-9 through eight innings.

After a Bradley Collins 1-2-3 inning in the top half of the 9th, the Larks got the rally started in the bottom half with a Jacob Rogers single and a Brian Leonhardt walk. AJ DiFillipo then reached on an infield single that scored two runs from second and third to make it a one-run game. Cooper Bowman lined out to right center to end the rally and the game.

Defensively, the Larks made three separate plays that were incredible. Two of which were on back-to-back plays in the 4th inning. Shortstop Cooper Bowman made a sliding stop up the middle on a ground ball before his strong throw to first took away a hit to start the fourth inning. AJ DiFillipo then made a sliding catch in right field to follow up the Bowman play. In the 6th inning, Jacob Rogers made a catch in foul territory above the Huskies dugout where he reached over the railing for the first out of the 6th. The Larks put on a show but unfortunately came up short. Look for the Larks to bounce back in Duluth Tuesday.

Inside The Boxscore: Wyatt Ulrich scored for the 34th time on the season in tonight’s game which leads the Northwoods League. Ulrich stole a base in the game as well for his 15th stolen base of the year which is the second most in the league just two behind Sam Baier of the Willmar Stingers. Ulrich also walked twice in the game to up his tally to 27 on the season which is two behind teammate Zack Gregory for the Northwoods League lead. Gregory reached two times in the game and is now one of just two players in the Northwoods League with an on-base percentage over .500. He leads the league at .545.