ROCORI Takes Down Sauk Rapids With Walk-Off Win

COLD SPRING -- The ROCORI Spartans baseball team opened up a new week on a high note on Tuesday, May 3 while welcoming in Sauk Rapids for a Central Lakes Conference contest in Cold Spring.

To kick off the week, the Spartans took down the Storm 5-4 behind a walk-off win at the Cold Spring Baseball Park. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Peyton Randall brought home the game-winning with an RBI single to push ROCORI to victory.

The Spartans began the game in a bit of a hole, trailing the Storm 2-0 after the first inning and that score remained going into the fourth inning. ROCORI answered in a big way in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs to grab a 4-2 lead. After Sauk Rapids scored two runs in the top of the fifth and evened the game at 4-4, the Spartans took the conference showdown in the bottom of the seventh and final inning to come away with another win.

At the plate, Evan Acheson went 1-for-2 with one run scored and two RBI, Joel Sowada went 2-for-2 with one run scored and one RBI, Sam Zeiher went 2-for-3 with one RBI and Randall finished 1-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored to lead ROCORI. Luke Van Erp and Cole Fuchs each added one hit and one run scored, while Brady Blattner finished 1-for-3 for the Spartans.

Blattner started the game on the mound for ROCORI, pitching the first six innings while giving up just four hits, no earned runs, two walks and striking out two. Fuchs pitched the final inning in relief to pick up the win, giving up no hits, no runs and one walk.

With the win, the Spartans improve to 5-1 overall on the season and also improve to 5-1 in the Central Lakes Conference. ROCORI returns to action on Thursday, May 5 when it hits the road to take on Willmar in a conference matchup at 6 p.m. in Willmar. The varsity reserve team will be facing Delano at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 5 in Delano.