ROCORI Baseball Hangs On Versus St. Cloud Crush

(KNSI) – A pitcher’s duel morphed into a shootout Tuesday night at Saint Cloud Tech High School. The visiting ROCORI Spartans outlasted the Crush, 7-5.

Saint Cloud was able to get the tying runs to second and third base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but a Brady Blattner breaking ball fooled Crush third baseman Hank Bulson. He took a hack but came up empty to record the final out. Blattner went seven full innings and fanned six.

The Crush got an equally impressive performance from Elian Mezquita. He hurled 6.2 innings, striking out seven. The game was characterized by quick innings early on. It was 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. ROCORI scored on an infield single, sacrifice bunt, and a half-cut blooper that fell into centerfield in the third.

Fast forward to the bottom of the fifth. Crush designated hitter Jaxon Kenning drove in two on a single to right field. Shortstop Joe Hess led off the inning with a double down the left field line and got to third on a wild pitch. Centerfielder Luke Boettcher walked and stole second. They both came home to give Saint Cloud a brief lead.

ROCORI answered with three in the top of the sixth inning. Spartan second baseman Joel Sowada reached on a fielder’s choice. Designated hitter Beck Loesch singled to left and then Blattner, also hitting clean up, drove in two with a double. Blattner scored when Saint Cloud failed to complete a strikeout of Tyler Lardy on a ball in the dirt.

Rocori got three more in the seventh to go up 7-2, starting a rally after the first two men went down on strikes. Sowada, Blattner, and Randall all picked up RBIs in the frame.

The Crush scored in the bottom of the seventh on a bases loaded walk and a two out-two RBI double from Mezquita.

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