The St. Paul Saints and Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks played each other on Friday night in their third series of the season, with the Saints having won both prior series, including last week in Fargo.

The Redhawks scored right away in the top of the first inning when Zach Penprase hit a solo home run to left field to give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead. Chad Mozingo would then draw a walk, and after a Joe Bonfe strikeout, Mozingo would score on a Joe Dunigan single to left center to make it a 2-0 Redhawks lead.

Alonzo Harris would respond in the bottom of the first inning for the Saints when he led off the inning with a home run to left to cut the defecit to 2-1. The Saints would follow that up with back to back singles to left from Vinny Difazio and Ian Gac, followed by a intentional walk to Mike Kvasnicka to lead the bases with two outs, but newly signed Ronnie Bourquin struck out to end the inning, and the Saints scoring chance.

The Saints would score again in the second inning when Anthony Phillips reached on a error by Brent Peterson, the third baseman. Dan Kaczrowski then walked, and after two straight strikeouts, Vinny Difazio hit a single to left field to score Phillips and tie the game at 2.

The teams would then settle into a pattern of exchanging zeroes untill the Saints fifth inning, when Difazio and Gac would both get on base with one out. After Angelo Songco flew out to left field, Mike Kvasnicka would single to left, scoring Difazio to break the tie and give the Saints a 3-2 lead.

The Saints would extend their lead in the seventh when Ian Gac hit a solo home run to left to make it a 4-2 Saints lead. 

Kramer Sneed would  recover from a rough first inning to give the Saints over seven good innings before being pulled in the eighth inning in favor of Mike Zouzalik, who would get Joe Bonfe to flyout to right field to end the inning without any runs scoring.

"I missed a spot to Penprase, and he did what he was supposed to do and put a good swing on it." Sneed said afterwards, "I just gotta be a little bit better in the first inning."

Fargo would also go to their bullpen in the eighth inning, as they brought in Benji Waite to replace Brandon Mann, who threw 136 pitches in seven innings pitched. Waite would do his job, as he got through the eighth with no runs allowed.

Zouzalik would return to the mound for the ninth, to try and nail down the save for the Saints. Joe Dunigan led off the inning for Fargo by popping out to Ronnie Bourquin, the third baseman. That brought up Joe Staley, who doubled to left center field. The Redhawks would send Frazier Hall up to pinch hit for Mike Schultz, Hall would proceed to flyout to center fielder Alonzo Harris to bring up Frank Solerno as the last hope for Fargo. He would ground out to second base to give the Saints another win, their 32nd on the season.

The teams will play again Saturday night in St Paul. The Saints will send RHP Jeff Shields to the mound. The Redhawks will counter with RHP Tyler Herron. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM CT.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Stevie Larson
NASCAR Editor, Minnesota sports fan. Contact: [email protected]