<\/p>\n
Rochester, MN — Entering today’s game, the Honkers were 5.5 games out of first place and they shrunk that lead to 5 games an impressive 21-9 win over the Bismarck Larks in front of 888 fans.<\/p>\n
The Flock’s starter Mike (Cal State-San Marcos) got Rochester off to a good start by keeping the larks scoreless in the top of the first inning.<\/p>\n
Kyler McMahan (Oregon State) got to second base on error and Andy Armstrong (Oregon State) brought him home with an RBI double to give Rochester a 1-0.<\/p>\n
But they would quickly add to that lead when Tristan Peterson (New Mexico State) drew a walk, Logan Denholm (California-Davis) was hit by a pitch, and A.J. Miller (Oregon) crushed a grand slam to give the Honkers a 5-0 after just one inning.<\/p>\n
After a scoreless second inning, the Larks used an RBI groundout, an RBI double, and a two-run home run by Ty Hanchey to shrink Rochester’s lead to one run, 5-4.<\/p>\n
However, the Flock responded with three runs in the bottom of the third inning. It scoring started when Austin Schell (Golden West College) drew a bases-loaded walk. Evan Berkey (Cal State-Bakersfield) added another run with a sacrifice-fly and McMahan made it 8-4 with an RBI single.<\/p>\n
Lopez bounced back in the top of the fourth inning by allowing just one base runner, which came on a walk.<\/p>\n
The Honkers offense kept rolling in the bottom of the fourth when Peterson scored on a wild pitch and Schell drew another bases-loaded walk. But the big hit of the inning came from Berkey who’s two-run single extended Rochester’s lead to 12-4.<\/p>\n
But, wait there’s more. The Flock’s offense stayed red hot in the bottom of the fifth inning. McMahan got it going with a single, then Peterson hit a single, and Denholm loaded the bases with a walk.<\/p>\n
Miller came to the plate and he unbelievably hit another grand slam! The Honkers now lead 16-4 and half of their RBIs had come from Miller.<\/p>\n
Not to be outdone, Ryan Ober (Oregon State) made it back-to-back homers with a 353-foot solo shot to make it a 17-4 game.<\/p>\n
Bismarck’s offense got a few runs back when Zack Gregory hit a two-run homer and Jack Chernow followed with a solo home run. That trimmed the Flock’s lead to 10 runs, 17-7.<\/p>\n
In the seventh inning, Micah Wallette (Golden West College) relieved Lopez and he recorded the first 1-2-3 inning of the game for either team.<\/p>\n
The Honkers’ offense showed no signs of slowing down in the bottom of the seventh when Ober hit his second home run, this one a two-run blast, to give Rochester a 19-7 lead.<\/p>\n
That score was only temporary as Schell scored on a wild pitch and Denholm drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Flock a 21-7 lead!<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, neither team scored in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
Center fielder McMahan became the first Honkers’ position player to pitch when he came to get the final three outs.<\/p>\n
The Larks weren’t going to go down easy. Ty Condel hit an RBI groundout and Damon Lux lined an RBI double down the third base to make the score 21-9.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, McMahan got his next batter to hit a pop-fly to left field to end the three and a half hour game.<\/p>\n
The 21-9 win increases Rochester’s second half record to 13-11 and their overall record improves to 31-28.<\/p>\n
A.J. Miller was honored as the Player of the Game for accomplishing the rare feat of hitting two grand slams in the same game.<\/p>\n
The Flock continue their series against the Larks with a double header on Tuesday, July 30. The first game is scheduled to start at 12:05 p.m. with the second game starting at 6:35 p.m. The series finale will take place on Wednesday, July 31, at 6:35 p.m.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rochester, MN — Entering today’s game, the Honkers were 5.5 games out of first place and they shrunk that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,15,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepagenewsslider","category-team-news","category-update-ticker"],"yoast_head":"\n