ROCHESTER, MINN – The Rochester Honkers almost blew a 10 run lead but hung on by a string to defeat the Bismarck Larks 12-11 on Monday night at Mayo Field. 

The scoring started early, Rochester put up two runs in the first, three in the second and another in the third to take a 6-0 lead. Kevin Dowdell (West Virginia) drove in the first run of the game with an RBI double, Carson Stevens (Cal Poly) followed him with a run scoring single. In the second Tyler White (Long Beach State) and Dario Gomez (Nevada) drove in two of the three Rochester runs with RBI singles. 

Bismarck put up a pair of runs in the top of the fourth but the Honkers blew the game open in the bottom half. They scored six runs on five hits to take a 12-2 lead. The big hits were an Alex Ritzer (UNC) RBI single and Dario Gomez two run single. However, Bismarck battled their way back. They scored two runs in the sixth on a Kaiden Cardoso (Minot State) solo home run and an RBI groundout. 

However, things got very interesting in the eighth inning at Mayo Field. The Larks scored seven runs on seven hits to make it a one run game. Cole Mahlum (Dakota County Tech) came in and got out of the jam stranding the tying and go-ahead runs on base with a strikeout and groundout. Mahlum came back out for the ninth and locked it down by striking out the side. 

With the win the Honkers improve to 26-31 this summer. They’ll look to sweep the series against Bismarck on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is set for 12:05 pm at Mayo Field.