Teh Belle Plaine Tigers visited Storm Red Bird Stadium on Friday night and waged a see-saw battle between Central Division foes, gaining a victory by a score of 6-4 that solidified the Tigers hold on first place in the division.

Justin Thompson started on the mound for the Red Birds and allowed just one run on 7 hits and no walks through 5 innings.   But the Tigers worked him for 5 runs on six hits in the 6th and 7th innings and used great relief pitching and solid defense to take the victory.

Red birds opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a walk to Casey Malgren followed by a single from Tom Bergner.  Zach Swenson then struck out and with Justin Thompson batting the Tiger catcher lazily lifted a return throw over the pitcher that went into center field to advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd.  Thompson's grounder to short stop plated Malgren with the first run.

In the top fot he third inning, Tigers LF Miah fogarty led off with a single to left.  He was erased on Travis Latzke's fielder's choice grounder to short. Latzke stole second and advanced to third an a pass ball.   After Thompson got his fourth strikeout of Matt Schultz, catcher Pat Schultz lined a single to center that scored Latzke from third to tie the score at 1-1.

In the bottom of the third inning, Zach Swenson doubled to left center and Thompson followed with a grounder to shortstop Latzke.  The throw to first was wild allowing Swenson to score the second run for the Red Birds.  2-1, Red Birds.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Malmgren led off with a single to right field; advanced to second on Bergner's sacrfice bunt; moved to third on Zach Zwenson's grounder to short and scored on Thompson's grounder to shortstop. 3-1, Red Birds.

Top fo the 6th inning, Tigers got two runs on three hits - single by RF Shawn Larson, double by CF Adam Johnson and 3rd Baseman, Josh Terrio's two RBI single to right field.   3-3, tie score

Bottom of the sixth, DH Tony marengo led off with a single to right and stole second.  Nate Swenson then hit a soft grounder to short and beat the throw, but the throw glanced off the first baseman's glove and Marengo advanced to third.  T. J. Gulden then sacrificed nate Swenson to second, but Marengo couldn't score on the play.  With two runners in scoring position and one out, Jeff Pavlovich grounded to third to score Marengo with the go ahead run.   Malmgren then reached first on the fourth fielding error by Tigers Shortstop, but Bergner fly to left field ended the inning with nate Swenson left on third base.  4-3, Red Birds.

In the 7th inning, the Tigers lead off with a double by Fogarty, a single by Latzke, who reached second with his second stolem base for the game.  Matt Schultz then singled to left field scoring both Fogarty and Latzke, and reached second on the throw to the plate.   Schultz advanced to third on an infield out and scored on a perfect sacrficie bunt by Shawn Larson to make the score 6-4, Tigers.  Tigers Reliever, Rob Wagener closed the door on the Red Birds getting the last eight outs and allowing only one hit to Zach Swenson and ending the game with a strikeout to preserve the win for the Tigers and keep them in first place in the division.

Next Game for the Red Birds is Saturday afternoon at Henderson for a 4:00 PM Start.  Then Sunday afternoon at Le Sueur for a 2:00 PM game against the Braves.

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