Beetles Hold off Bucks to Level Series

Published on June 17, 2012 under Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Alexandria Beetles News Release


Waterloo, IA - When scheduled starter Nick Berhel was scratched with arm soreness, Shawn Riesgraf was forced into a spot start just three games after he threw four innings of relief in Thursday's series opener against the Waterloo Bucks.

Riesgraf was excellent, allowing just an unearned run in three innings and Scott Sanderson, Mitchell Babb and Anthony Bazzani pieced together the final three innings as the Alexandria Beetles (7-11) edged the Bucks (13-6) 7-6 in the fourth game of their five game series.

Mitchell Babb earned the win with 2.1 innings of relief in his best appearance of the year for the Beetles. Babb faced the minimum in the sixth and seventh, striking out the side in his second inning of work, before departing with one out in the eighth.

Zach Pettiford was the loser for Waterloo after allowing three runs in .2 innings of relief.

Waterloo took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on a Kevin Kaczmarski RBI line drive just off the glove of Jimmy Pickens with two outs.

Alexandria rallied to take the lead in the top of the fifth scoring a pair of runs in that inning for the second consecutive day. Ryan Padilla led off the inning with a double and Josh Guerra singled him to third. With two outs, Matt Beaty came up with the big hit with a double to right to score both runners.

But with three hits in the bottom of the fifth, Waterloo gained a 4-2 lead. Kaczmarski drove in his second run with a two out single to give the Bucks the 3-2 edge and Sean Borman doubled him home up the right center alley.

The Beetles chipped a run back in both the sixth and seventh with Padilla doubling home Jimmy Pickens and Tanner Vavra delivering a big two-out RBI single to tie the game an inning later.

With Babb keeping the Bucks at bay, Alexandria took its first lead of the game in the eighth. Ben Moore walked to lead off the inning and Padilla was hit by a pitch to start the inning and the duo pulled off a double steal. With one out, David Garcia singled in one run and two batters later, Beaty walked with the bases loaded to score a second. The next batter Vavra delivered another RBI single as the Beetles took the largest lead of the game 7-4.

That set the stage for late inning drama, as the Bucks scored two on a pair of hits in the bottom of the eighth with Bazzani coming on to strike out the final two batters of the inning with the potential tying run 90 feet away.

The bottom of the ninth was equally eventful as the Bucks loaded the bases against Bazzani before he induced a looper to third caught by Beaty on the outfield grass to end the game.

The rubber game of the five game set begins at 6:35 CDT Monday.

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Northwoods League Stories from June 17, 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