Published On: June 13th, 2025

Make it six consecutive victories for the Minot Hot Tots at the home of the Bismarck Larks, Municipal Ballpark. The Tots notched another ‘W’ over their rivals, 6-2.

 

The Larks may have outhit the Hot Tots, but early walks proved costly for Bismarck starting pitcher Braxton Greenburg. In the first inning alone two walks, two hit batters, and a wild pitch as well, helped the Hot Tots get ahead 2-0 without recording a hit.

 

Minot collected three more runs, all on one swing of the bat in the second inning. Matt Toomey cleared the left-field wall, showcasing opposite field hitting ability for his first home run of the summer. With the Tots up 5-0 in a flash, the attention turned to debuting starter Jason Masick.

 

Despite just a three-inning workload (not enough to be credited for the win), Masick gave up just one hit and two runs on Thursday night. When Masick got into a jam in the fourth, manager Brian Lewis took the ball and gave it to another rather new arm to the Hot Tots, Lucas Morici. Morici calmly struck out three and did not concede a run with the bases loaded.

 

As for more offense from Minot, not much would be found. Hot Tot hitters only recorded three hits the entire night. Thanks to a four-inning relief effort from Morici and six outs to close it down from Nolan Girard, Minot didn’t need any further insurance.

 

The Tots and Larks battled through four scoreless innings to finish the game. Minot came out on top, 6-2, and moved ahead to a 3-0 start to the Dakota Dust-Up rivalry series.

 

Game two of the series against Bismarck moves north tomorrow night. The Hot Tots will host the Larks looking to stay hot and move out of last place in the Great Plains West. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm CT.

Lucas Morici was the SportClips MVP serving up seven Ks from the bullpen and taking the winning decision. TJ Stottlemyre’s smooth stop at short was credited as the First Command Play of the Game. As mentioned, hits were few, but the Hot Tots showed patience at the plate, drawing seven Buffalo Wild Wings Walks. Of course, the victory goes down as the fourth Sky Dancer Casino Win of the season.