WATERLOO, Iowa – The Bucks were feeling confident, six outs away from victory heading into the eighth inning. But that’s when the Larks got their revenge for Thursday’s doubleheader sweep.

The Bismarck Larks (6-11) after falling in a doubleheader sweep on Thursday, entered Friday’s contest on a five-game losing streak. Things looked to remain the same as in the first inning the Waterloo Bucks (4-12) scored to take an early 1-0 lead off an RBI single by Tennessee Tech outfielder Ryan Guardino.

The Larks would strike back for two and take the lead in the top of the third, but again Guardino was having none of it. He launched his third home run of the season and his second of the series to score three runs in the bottom half of the third as the Bucks reclaimed the lead 4-2.

It would again be Bismarck being a thorn in the Bucks’ side as it scored two runs in the top of the sixth to tie the ballgame back up at four. Yet again, the Bucks were having none of it, reclaiming the lead in the bottom of the inning off a Tyler Douglas RBI groundout in his Bucks debut.

Heading to the eighth, the Bucks were six outs away from their third straight victory and clinching the series over Bismarck. However, Dylan Perry hit an RBI double for the Larks to tie the ballgame and later came around to score himself off an AJ Barraza reach on error. The Larks once again led the ballgame 6-5.

After the Bucks went scoreless in the eighth, the Larks added a single insurance run in the ninth to claim a 7-5 lead with three outs to go.

Unfortunately for Waterloo, that would end up being the final score. The Bucks got runners on the corners after a pair of walks drawn against Bismarck closer Noah Boyle but couldn’t get any runs off the effort.

Jordan Powell took the loss on the mound, his third in four appearances. For Bismarck, reliever Justin Goldstein took the win to improve to 2-2 on the season, while Boyle earned his third save of the season.

Waterloo will seek the four-game series victory on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. from Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo as Bismarck seeks the series split. You can still purchase tickets to the Fireworks Saturday game on waterloobucks.com. If you can’t make it out to the ballpark you can catch the game via live stream on Watch NWL.