Brainerd 2 – Duluth 1

Dennis O’Grady (Duke) threw his second gem against the Duluth Huskies this season, and helped lead the Lunkers over their North Division foe, 2-1 at Mills Field. The Lunkers have now won their last four in a row, which ties a season high. Dennis O’Grady shined over eight innings of work. He retired Duluth in order in six of his eight innings, struck out six, and allowed a measly three hits. Not a single Husky base runner advanced past second on his watch. The Lunkers first offensive spark occurred in the second. A leadoff single by Mike Kvasnicka (Minnesota) was followed by Justin Gominsky’s (Minnesota) RBI double that caromed off the base of the leftfield wall. The two Gophers contributed to the early Lunker lead. The next five-and-a-half innings proved to be a pitcher’s duel. However, Zach Stewart (Ohio Dominican) broke things up in the eighth with his zipped single into right. Then, a sacrifice bunt by Stephen Wickens (Florida Gulf Coast) moved Stewart to second. T.J. Berge (Northern Colorado) brought Stewart home on his looping RBI single into left. Duluth plated one in the ninth against closer Drew Smith (Barton CC), but the righty’s fastball proved too much for the Huskies. A groundball to third gave Smith his eleventh save and secured the Lunkers victory. T.J. Berge, Mike Kvasnicka, and Justin Gominsky all finished with two hits apiece to lead the offense. This is the third consecutive multi-hit affair for Kvasnicka.

Alexandria 3 – Green Bay 1

Green Bay’s offense couldn’t find its rhythm on Monday night as Alexandria evened the series with a 3-1 win at Jones Sign Field inside Joannes Stadium. Green Bay (4-6) was only able to muster three hits on the evening to drop its batting average in the last five games to a stingy .184 and to an overall total of .218 on the season. Alexandria (6-4) scored a run in each of the second, fourth, and sixth innings off RBI singles to earn the victory. All but two batters were able to reach base for the Beetles as they pounded out six singles and a triple. Nick Brown (Iowa) shut down the Bullfrogs, despite allowing a run, with a season-high nine strikeouts during his seven innings on the hill. It was his third win of the season. Chris Schaeffer (North Carolina State) led Green Bay offensively with a run scored and its only extra base hit of the night, a double in the second inning. Trevor Edwards (UNC-Greensboro) tallied a pair of singles to go 2-for-3 at the plate for Alexandria. The middle of the Beetles order scored all three of their runs. Matt Miller (Michigan) struck out two in 1.1 innings on the bump to pick up his seventh save of the year.Alexandria and Green Bay exchanged runs in the second frame for a 1-1 tie. The Beetles’ Chase Porch (North Alabama) singled up the middle to drive in Jayson Langfels (Eastern Kentucky) for the first run of the game. The Bullfrogs answered in the bottom half of the inning when Schaeffer crossed the plate on a throwing error after he reached on a double. Edwards hit a RBI-single driving in Tim Roberson (Florida Gulf Coast) to push the Beetles up 2-1 in the fourth. Alexandria tacked on its third run of the night in the sixth inning for a 3-1 lead. Sean Olenek (Mercer) tripled to right center off the wall and scored on Edwards’ RBI-single line drive to right-center. Dixon Anderson (California) made his first start of the season, but fell in five innings allowing five hits and two runs. He struck out five batters and walked two to fall to 0-3 on the season.

La Crosse 5 – Eau Claire 3

The Express had a couple chances early to put the La Crosse Loggers down.  They were not able to capitalize however, and they dropped another game 5-3 to the Loggers Monday night. La Crosse scored in the first inning to take an early lead, but in the bottom of the first, the Express had a golden opportunity to take back the lead. Instead they settled for only one run and remained tied with the Loggers. Robbie Knight (Creighton) doubled to lead off the game and he advanced to third on the throw by the right fielder which missed the target.  Nolan Fadness (UW-Oshkosh) then singled Knight home to tie the game.  Kole Calhoun (Arizona St.) reached on a fielder’s choice throwing error by the third baseman and the Express had runners on second and third with no outs. But after that, Nate Baumann (Augustana) and Brooks Pinckard (Baylor) struck out.  Then the Express attempted a double steal and Fadness was thrown out at third to end the threat. Pinckard accounted for the next two Express runs.  In the sixth inning he hit a solo home run onto the fan deck in right field.  In his next at-bat in the eighth inning he hit a triple and was brought in when Andy Leonard (UIC) grounded out to the shortstop. Louis Head (Texas Tech) was the starting pitcher for the Express.  Head struggled early but settled down to go six innings.  Head allowed four earned runs in six innings and struck out six batters.  Ian Campbell (Yavapai) has really stepped up lately in the Express bullpen and he was solid again Monday night.  Campbell pitched three scoreless innings to give the Express a chance to come back. In the ninth inning, with the Express down 5-3, they got the tying run on base.  With one out Calhoun came up to bat with runnners on first and second base.  Calhoun grounded out to the first baseman though for the second out.  With two outs, Lucas Herbst (Santa Clara) grounded out to the second baseman to end the threat and the game. Besides Pinckard, Knight had two doubles on the night to lead the offense.  The Express totaled nine hits on the night, but once again were unable to come up with the timely hit. 

Waterloo 1 – Thunder Bay 0 (12 Inn.)

A one-out RBI single off the bat of pinch-hitter Christian Griffiths (Stanford) plated the lone run in a 1-0, 12-inning Northwoods League win for Waterloo Monday night. Griffiths’ single plated right fielder Jason Krizan (Dallas Baptist) with the winning run. Krizan opened the inning with a walk. The Bucks (6-4 second half, 16-27) received steady pitching throughout the evening. Starting hurler Jared Wagoner (Butler) fired six frames with four hits given up and four strikeouts. He was followed by the trio quartet of Dennis Chachko (Niagara), Scott Williams (UW-Stevens Point), Tim Ryan (Minnesota) and eventual winner Eric Julienne (California St.-San Marcos). Thunder Bay (4-6 second half, 13-31 overall) was led by a three-hit evening from catcher Aaron Munoz (Gateway C.C.).

Mankato 4 – Rochester 3

The MoonDogs piled up six singles and drew a walk all in the second inning, scoring four runs, and that was all Mankato would need to outlast the Honkers 4-3 on Monday afternoon. Corey Jones (Cal State Fullerton) homered for the second straight day to raise his league-leading total to 12 and Brody Taliaferro (Hutchinson CC) ran his scoreless inning streak to 8.2 to start his Honker career with 4.1 innings of near-perfect relief. With the loss Rochester fell to 8-3 in the half and Mankato improved to 5-5. After exchanging scoreless first innings the MoonDogs started off the second with four straight singles against Rochester starter Riley Bevill (Oregon). Mankato would add two more singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly in the inning to score four total runs, but only one of the balls was well-hit against Bevill. Still, that tough frame was enough to end Bevill’s day, although he did get the third out to escape the inning. Meanwhile Bennett Whitmore, Bevill’s teammate at Oregon, was very effective on the mound for Mankato. The Honkers did push across an unearned run in the third when Tony Thompson (Kansas) drove him Jones with a single, and Jones led off the fifth with a line drive over the wall in right to make the score 4-2. The next three batters for Rochester reached, and Aaron Johnson (Illinois) eventually drove in one run with an RBI groundout to make the score 4-3. But that was all the offense either team would see in the game, as both bullpens were extremely effective. Chris Garrison, another Oregon pitcher, relieved Whitmore in the sixth for Mankato and cruised through the final four innings allowing just one hit to earn his first save. Meanwhile Taliaferro came on for the Honkers to start the third inning and allowed just one hit with three strikeouts as he worked into the seventh before handing the ball off to Danny Brock (St. Louis) who tossed 2.2 innings allowing just one base runner and striking out three. Thompson had the best day at the plate for Rochester by collecting three hits, while Jones added two runs and an RBI on his one hit—the home run. KC Serna (San Diego) was the only MoonDog with multiple hits. Bevill took the loss to fall to 1-2 on the year, while Whitmore earned the win to improve to 3-1.

St. Cloud 10 – Wisconsin 3