BISMARCK, ND: La Crosse endured a 7 hour bus ride up to North Dakota on Thursday to begin a 4 game series with the Bismarck Larks. The long travel clearly did not bother the Loggers as they dominated Bismarck 4-0 on Thursday night.
Pitching, pitching and of course, more pitching was the story for La Crosse on Thursday. Cole Colleran (San Diego) made his Loggers debut and did not disappoint. He fired 5 scoreless frames against the Larks striking out 6 in the process.
Manager Brian Lewis turned the ball over to Nathan Hansen (San Diego State) to start the 6th. Hansen dominated Larks hitters all night as he struck out the first 6 Bismarck batters he faced and went on to pick up the save. La Crosse struck out 14 batters in totality; their single season high.
On the offensive side of the ball, La Crosse scored in the first 3 frames of the night and that was that was needed on Thursday night. Ronnie Sweeny (Minnesota) extended his league high 11 game hit steak with an RBI single. Kevin Sim (San Diego) and Seth Stroh (Wichita State) chipped in with RBI’s as well in Thursday night’s victory.
The win pushed the Loggers over .500 to 6-5 and look to take game two against Bismarck on Friday night. First pitch at 7:05.