Alexandria's ninth-inning rally falls short

July 21, 2012 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Alexandria Beetles News Release


Alexandria, MN -Waterloo scored in seven of their nine at-bats for the second consecutive game and Alexandria's ninth-inning rally fell short as the Bucks (27-25, 8-9) handed the Beetles (21-31, 8-9) their third consecutive loss 13-8.

Starter Brandon Johnson took the loss for Alexandria giving up four runs in three innings while Buck starter Connor Cline earned the victory despite giving up four runs and seven hits in five innings.

Waterloo scored a pair of runs in the first on one-out doubles by Dan Sheppard and Kevin Kaczmarski setting the table for a long evening for the Beetles pitching staff.

Ben Moore's eleventh home run of the season tied the game at two in the bottom of the first before Jordan Adams led off the top of the second with a solo homerun that put the visitors ahead for good.

The Bucks tacked on a single run in the third against Johnson before exploding in the middle innings against the Alexandria bullpen.

After the Beetles failed to score in the third despite loading the bases with no outs, they pulled one back on a Josh Carpenter groundout stranding the tying run at second.

From that point on, it was all Waterloo as the Bucks scored two in the fifth on another double from Sheppard and a bases loaded walk, three in the sixth, including another RBI hit from Sheppard, and a pair in both the seventh and the eighth.

Benny Roberts delivered the big hit in the seventh, a two-run double, and Nico Zych, in his first at-bat of the night, drove a two-run homer to left center to extend the Bucks to their largest lead of the night at 13-6.

But comfortably ahead going into the bottom of the ninth, the Bucks ran into trouble when reliever Justin Grijalva lost his command. After a leadoff strikeout, Tanner Vavra singled and the next three batters, Stephen McGee, Dylan Raper and Carpenter reached on a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch to force in a run. McGee's walk was his fourth of the game.

With the bases loaded, Grijalva's collegiate teammate at Loyola Marymount Matt Lowenstein struck out before Will Fulmer, who extended his on-base streak to 35 games and hitting streak to 22, walked in another run bringing up Ben Moore with the tying run in the on-deck circle.

On a payoff pitch, Moore swung through a high fastball as the Bucks closed out the second game of the series and improved to 5-2 against Alexandria this year.

The teams play the final game of their three-game set and the final game before the All-Star Break on Sunday at 3:05 CDT from Knute Nelson.



Northwoods League Stories from July 21, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central