Game Recap - Bandits Pull Through v. Nowthen, 3-2

The St. Croix River Bandits (7-12, 10-16) were able to get a win at home versus a tough Nowthen team on Sunday afternoon by a score of 3-2. Jay Gagner made his first official start for the River Bandits and went eight strong innings, giving up six hits and walking five while striking out ten and only giving up two earned runs.

The Bandits scored all of their runs in the 3rd inning off of Nowthen's Tony Jarmoluk. Brandon Pederson started with a walk, and Jordan Martell's sac bunt ended up being a bunt single. Trevor Todd then walked, so like on Friday night, the Bandits had the bases loaded with no outs. This time, the Bandits came through. Mitch Thompson and Jesse Hartel hit back to back RBI singles, and with two outs Matt Vold was able to get an RBI single, giving the Bandits a 3-0 lead.

The Nowthen Pioneers then lifted Jormoluk in favor of ace pitcher Danny Ebner who allowed only three hits in the next five innings. The Pioneers got their two runs in the top of the seventh inning with a single and walk, followed by a Danny Ebner double scoring both runners.

With the Bandits leading 3-2 going into the ninth, and Jay Gagner having thrown just over 110 pitches the Bandits opted for Trevor Todd in relief. After falling behind early in the count to the #9 hitter Ostein, Todd battled back, and on a 2-2 pitch he threw a close pitch that appeared to be a strike and was called ball, after Ostein just got wood on two foul balls, he took ball four and first base. Todd then hit lead off batter Danny Ebner and was lifted for Curtis Roebuck. The first batter Roebuck faced bunted the runners over. Scott Levine who has been batting over .500 for the season, but was 0-3 today was due up. The brain trust inside the Bandits dugout decided to throw to Levine and Roebuck was able to induce a ground ball out to third base. Roebuck was then able to strike out clean-up hitter Bob Tokar to get the save and end the game. Congrats River Bandits for being able to pull out a close one!

Next game is v. Chisago @ Chisago Thursday 7/19 7:30 pm

*Other Notes

*MIA - Troy DeSmet, Brian Jacobson, Michael Chelberg, Alex Sullivan, Sean Weinberg

*Curtis Roebuck got his 2nd save of the season, and leads the Eastern Minny League in that category.