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Beetles surge past Rochester

August 10, 2012 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Alexandria Beetles News Release


Alexandria, MN - The Alexandria Beetles sure saved their greatest Knute Nelson comeback for last. In the ballpark that has seen back-and-forth slugfests all season long, the Beetles (32-36, 19-14) rallied from 11-3 behind in the seventh to surge past the Rochester Honkers (27-41, 12-21) by a 15-12 final in the home finale on Friday.

Combined with a Willmar Stinger loss, the Beetles remain alive in the North Division race in the second half. Alexandria trails Willmar by a single game and the St. Cloud Rox by a half game. Because the Stingers hold the tiebreaker, a single Beetles loss or Willmar win in the final two days would eliminate Alexandria from the race. But a Beetles sweep of Duluth combined with a Thunder Bay sweep of Willmar and a St. Cloud loss in one of two against Rochester would put the Beetles back in the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

For another day at least, the dream is alive thanks to an astonishing 12 run seventh inning in which 15 men came to the plate.

The capacity crowd of 1441 sat in stunned silence early in the ballgame as the visitors used big innings in the first, third and fifth to jump all over Alexandria early. Three singles in the first and a fielding error led to two Rochester runs and the Honkers plated six in the third sending 10 men to the plate. In that inning, four Rochester hits, including a bases-clearing double from Jordan Parr, combined with two hit by pitches, one forcing in a run, and another error to give the Honkers an 8-0 lead.

Alexandria chipped away with three in the bottom of the third when Robert Case drove a two-out two-RBI double to left and John Loeffler followed with an RBI double of his own.

But the Honkers matched the Beetles' three with a three-spot of their own in the fifth including Jordan Parr's eighth homer of the summer.

Then the Beetles chose a good time for their best inning of the year. With reliever Nicholas Pecha beginning his second inning of work, Matt Lowenstein led off with a walk and Tanner Vavra lined his fourth homer of the season out to centerfield to make the score 11-5. Ben Moore singled to right, Case singled to left, and Loeffler reached on error by Pecha when he bobbled a comebacker and threw high to second trying to force the middle runner. After a Dallas Hannah RBI single to right, Pecha was lifted with the bases still loaded for Tyler Lohr. Lohr's first pitch was a ball to Ryan Padilla. His second was clobbered out to right for a grand slam pulling the Beetles within one. The home run was the eighth of the year for Padilla and the first grand slam of the summer for the Beetles.

Alexandria was not close to finished. Lohr walked Blake Barrow and hit Josh Carpenter before being lifted for Elliot Engle, who promptly walked the first two men he faced, Lowenstein and Vavra, forcing in the game-tying run. A Moore fielder's choice, two wild pitches, and Rob Case sacrifice fly later and the Beetles led 15-11 having scored twelve runs on only five hits.

Though the Honkers scored one in the eighth off reliever Alex Guilford, Guilford and closer Anthony Bazzani, who earned his league-leading 16th save of the summer each retired three men in a row representing the game-tying run in the eighth and ninth respectively. Bazzani struck out the side in the ninth after allowing a leadoff single and walk.

Michael Stocke earned the victory with a scoreless sixth and seventh in his Alexandria debut.

The Beetles continue their playoff push at 7:05 CDT in Duluth on Saturday.



Northwoods League Stories from August 10, 2012


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