FARGO, North Dakota – A gem on the mound tossed by Tyler Grauer and home runs by Scott Schreiber and Correlle Prime power the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks past the Sioux City Explorers by a score of 7-2 on a breezy Saturday evening at Newman Outdoor Field.
The RedHawks would be responsible for the game’s opening salvo as a Scott Schreiber bloop single to center field drove in Evan Alexander in the top of the first. This snapped a 10-game streak in which the visitors were first to score at Newman Outdoor Field.
Fargo-Moorhead would start to pour it on over the next couple of innings as a sacrifice fly to center field by B.J. Lopez scored Matt Goodheart. Alexander singled to right to score Sam Dexter from third which would then set up Correlle Prime to hit his 12th home run of the season opposite field in the bottom of the second. In the ensuing inning, Schreiber led off by clobbering a pitch to center field off Explorers ace Solomon Bates for his fifth home run in five games in a RedHawks uniform to make it a 4-0 game after three innings played.
The Explorers responded in the top of the fourth as they pieced together a few hits to score a couple of runs and cut the lead in half off RedHawks starter Tyler Grauer. That would be the only damage done to the southpaw as he continued to deal, pitching eight complete innings, only allowing six hits and striking out two as he let his defense work and only faced six batters above the minimum.
The RedHawks added one more in the bottom of the eighth inning as Nick Novak singled to right field to score Goodheart from second to bring the game to its final score as Reza Aleaziz closed out the X’s in the top of the ninth.
With the win, the RedHawks collected their 30th win of the season and continue to hold firm in their spot in the AAPB West standings. The series will conclude tomorrow afternoon with a decisive rubber match scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch with gates at Newman Outdoor Field scheduled to open an hour prior.
