Spartans Edged By Eagles In Extras

SAUK RAPIDS -- The ROCORI Spartans baseball team fell in a Central Lakes Conference game to the St. Cloud Apollo Eagles on Friday night in Sauk Rapids.

In a back-and-forth contest, the Spartans were edged by the Eagles 10-9 in eight innings of play at Bob Cross Field.

The game, which was originally supposed to be played earlier in the season in St. Cloud, was moved to Sauk Rapids on Friday night due to forecasted rain in Central Minnesota.

With the game tied 1-1 heading into the sixth inning, ROCORI jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the game with scoring two runs in the top half of the sixth.

After Apollo tallied six runs in the bottom of the sixth to retake the lead, ROCORI evened things up with four runs in the top of the seventh to knot things up at 7-7 and force extra innings.

The Spartans opened up the extra-inning frame in the eighth by scoring two runs to take a 9-7 lead, but the Eagles answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to win the game on a walk-off.

Nolan Notch went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, Max Hansen finished 2-for-3 with two RBI, Dylan Rausch went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI and Brady Klehr went 1-for-5 with a double, one run scored and one RBI to lead ROCORI offensively. Jack Steil and Rudy Notch each added one hit a piece and Brady Linn also drove in one run in the game.

Steil started the game on the mound for the Spartans, pitching 5.1 innings and giving up one hit, two earned runs, four walks and striking out 10. Brock Humbert pitched 0.2 innings in relief, while Blake Miller pitched the final 1.2 innings.

With the loss, ROCORI falls to 6-5 in Central Lakes Conference action and are now 7-9 overall on the season.

The Spartans will wrap up the regular season schedule this week with three games, two of which are against CLC opponents. Next up for ROCORI is a nonconference game against Big Lake at 7 p.m. Monday at Big Lake High School.