Beetles Rally to Top MoonDogs

Published on June 13, 2012 under Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Alexandria Beetles News Release


Mankato, MN - Steve Weber pitched 5.1 innings of brilliant relief in his Alexandria debut, Anthony Bazzani struck out the side in both innings of his two-out save, and the Alexandria Beetles (5-9) came from behind to defeat the Mankato MoonDogs (10-5).

Weber entered the game with two outs in the bottom of the first inning and the MoonDogs already up 3-0 inheriting a bases loaded jam from Mitchell Babb. But Weber induced a lazy grounder to end the threat and pitched with utter brilliance through the sixth, allowing just three hits and facing two above the minimum.

The Beetles pulled a single run back in the second when Tanner Vavra singled home David Garcia who led off the inning with a walk.

Now down 3-1, Alexandria halved the lead in the fifth. Johnny Tolson stung a double into the left center field alley and Ben Moore torched the right center alley for an RBI triple. But Moore would get no further as he was caught in a fielder's choice on an infield chopper and Mankato maintained the lead.

Alexandria finally struck gold in the sixth scoring four runs on just a single hit. Jared Musgrove led off the inning with a walk and Vavra walked him to second with one out. A Josh Carpenter single to shallow left loaded the bases, and Tolson hit a slow chopper to second. But rushing to try to turn a double play, Nick Ratajczak flipped the ball errantly towards his shortstop Drew Stankiewicz to score one run, and with Vavra racing to the plate, the ball was thrown away to the backstop for a second error as Alexandria took a 4-3 lead. A groundout and wild pitch plated two more to give the Beetles a 6-3 lead.

After Alex Guilford shut down Mankato in the seventh, Bazzani came on for his second stint in orange and purple this summer and struck out the side 1-2-3 in the eighth. Bazzani allowed a single run in the ninth on a pair of walks and an excuse-me single to left to make the score 6-4, but the hard-throwing rightly closed out the victory with two more strikeouts to give Alexandria the series victory.

In three innings this year, Bazzani has struck out eight batters.

The Beetle road trip continues on Thursday beginning a five game roadtrip in Waterloo at 6:35 CDT.

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Northwoods League Stories from June 13, 2012


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