DICKINSON – In what has become a hallmark of the Badlands Big Sticks' 2024 Northwoods League season, the home team thrilled the Dakota Community Bank & Trust Ballpark crowd with a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over the visiting Minot Hot Tots on Monday, July 1, to take a 3-2 lead in the Battle of the Badlands rivalry with a rematch scheduled for Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. What was notable about the 1-run victory was the manner in which the Sticks were able to overcome a significant 7-2 deficit after Minot (10-23) scored 5 runs in the second inning after scoring 2 runs in the first.

Braxton Greenburg (1-0, 4.67 ERA) earned his first win of the season in eight appearances in four innings after right-handed starter JD Kirchner was chased off the mound. Greenburg struck out just one Hot Tots batter in the final period but allowed just one hit, and the team led by Dylan Cortes and Robert Tolman kept the visitors under control until fan 4 and held Minot to just two hits for the rest of the game.

The Sticks responded to the Hot Tots' 2-0 lead by tying the game in the bottom half of the first inning on a leadoff walk by center fielder Adam Haber that resulted in him being brought home by third baseman Troy Berg — who went 2-for-4 with two runs and 2 RBIs. Berg scored on the next at-bat on a sacrifice fly by designated hitter Evan Appelwick after the Dickinson native had advanced to third base on the previous play.

After the 5-run second inning fiasco, the Big Sticks began to cut into the visitors' 3-run lead in the bottom of the second inning when the Minot squad went completely wild, walking three batters in a row to right fielder Dawson Walls, catcher Jake Paczkowski and Tyler Tobey, leading to Walls and Paczkowski crossing the plate after an RBI groundout by returning Big Sticks and left fielder Keenan Proctor and an RBI single by Haber, cutting the Hot Tots' lead to 7-5.

The 'Sticks cut the deficit to 7-6 in the third when Tobey hit a single to center that drove first baseman Brant Kragel across the plate, and after Minot extended its lead to 2 runs (8-6) in the fourth, Berg marched home to Walls with an RBI walk with the bases loaded and Minot maintained its narrow 8-7 lead.

The highlight came in the fifth inning, when the patient Big Sticks capitalized on a single by Proctor, followed shortly by his steal of second base before a double by Haber sent Proctor across the plate to tie the game at 8-8. And after shortstop Zach Selfon moved Haber to third base with a single, Berg hit a drive to left for the final 9-8 lead, which the 'Sticks held for the rest of the game and from which neither team could score any more runs in the next 3.5 innings.

Both teams contributed 8 hits each and Haber was the only other big hitter for the Big Sticks at 2 for 3 with his double, 2 runs and 2 RBI in the bag, while Proctor accounted for 4 runs by crossing the plate twice and adding 2 RBIs, with his steal in the fifth inning being crucial to the eventual win.

For the game on Tuesday, July 2, the Big Sticks (16-18) are expected to send Mason Lunzman to the mound with his ERA of 3.86 and the 'Tots will have Jakob Runzel (1-2, 7.47) on the mound.

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Gaylon is a sportswriter from Jensen Beach, Florida, but has lived all over the world. Growing up in a sports-oriented environment, he developed a love of sports that has led him to a career as a journalist since 1998 in places like Enid, Oklahoma; Alamogordo, New Mexico; Pascagoula, Mississippi; and Viera, Florida. His greatest passion is small-town sports, especially baseball and football.