St. Cloud rallies to snag series split from Eau Claire

Box Score – Virtual Game Day Program

Searching for their third win in a row and longest winning streak of the season on Monday night, the Eau Claire Express totaled 11 baserunners but could only manage one run on their way to a 4-1 loss to the St. Cloud Rox at Carson Park.

Tyler Adkison batted in the lone run for the Express with a sacrifice fly to give Eau Claire an early lead in the first inning. However they would fail to score any more runs beyond that.

“The game is all about momentum,” said Adkison. “We had chances to break through but just couldn’t do it tonight.”

Bryce Hensley got the start for Eau Claire and had his best performance of the season but was still clipped with the loss. He pitched 5 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts.

“Bryce can deal pretty well but a lot of times he gets down in counts and doesn’t battle back the way he should,” said Express Field Manager Dale Varsho. “He’s going to be alright, he just needs to pitch to contact.”

Adkison finished 2 for 3 with a double and the sacrifice fly while second basemen Sam Hurt was the only other player with 2 hits. Varsho said it’s tough knowing all his team needed to be in the ball game was more timely hitting.

“It’s hard because you play two really solid games, and of course tonight you had a good opportunity to score some runs and we didn’t, and now were back to losing,” said Varsho.  “Pitching is going to be there for us, we have a lot of guys with fresh arms that are going to keep us in games. We just got to start hitting the ball.”

The Express ran themselves out of a couple innings with mental mistakes on the base paths as well as committing two errors and allowing a run to score off a wild pitch. Varsho said his team needs to be less sloppy.

“We have to do a better job of shoring things up and making sure they earn every run,” said Varsho. “If we do that were going to be a team to reckon with.”

The Express have two more games remaining in the home stand with a series against the Waterloo Bucks starting tomorrow night. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. at Carson Park.