It was a tale of two games on Saturday, as the Bismarck Bull Moose and Bismarck Larks split a high scoring game and a pitchers duel.
The Bull Moose put it on early in game one scoring eight runs in the second inning. They would score four more runs in the sixth and eventually take down the Larks, 16-7 for their fifth win of the season. The Larks pitching dominated in game two led by Seth Brewer when they shut out the Bull Moose, 2-0.
A rain delay pushed back game two an hour, but it didn’t effect Brewer on the hill. He ended with nine strikeouts in six innings of work, only walking one Bull Moose hitter and allowing one hit. Brewer not only extended his lead in the North Dakota Pod in strikeouts, but he jumped into first place in the entire Northwoods League with 38 strikeouts.
Calen Schwabe was the offensive leader on Saturday, going 4-for-6 in game one, scoring all four times he reached base. Noah Hemphill had five RBIs in game one to lead the Bull Moose. Ben Teel’s three RBIs today pushed him into 4th place in the NWL leaderboards. Torin Montgomery also collected two more hit by pitches Saturday to make it 11 on the season — tops in the entire NWL.
Defense was on display in game two for the Larks, especially during the Fetzer Electric Play of the Game when Tyler Traphagen, Connor Henriques and Brody Tanksley relayed it home to keep Montgomery from scoring the top of the 7th inning.
Matthew Plisko turned up the heat when he hit 93 mph on the radar gun for the Metro Area Ambulance Fastest Pitch during game two.
All three teams take Sunday off from playing at Bismarck Municipal Ballpark, home of the Dakota Community Bank and Trust Field, but are back in action on Monday. The Larks will host the Mandan Flickertails in a battle between the top two teams in the pod, with first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
The Larks will run out Joe Todd on the mound and the Flickertails projected starter is Patrick Pridgen. Mandan leads the Larks by 1.5 games in the standings and will look to extend that lead, including their five game winning streak.
