Eskomos Fend Off Bulldogs Rally

April 15th, 2016

Tyler Peterson-NSO

The Esko Eskomos played host to the Carlton Bulldogs on Thursday night in their season opener. The Eskomos held on in the tighly contested game, winning 3-2, to start the season off 1-0.

The Eskomos jumped out to an early 2-0 lead when Ryan Bourgeault hit a single that drove in two runs. The score would remain 2-0 in favor of the Eskomos until the 5th inning when Bourgeault drove in Nick Emanuel on a single to notch his 3rd RBI of the game.

In the top of the 6th inning, the Bulldogs would start chipping away at the lead when Evan Gray hit an RBI single to drive in Jacob Santkuyl. Just one batter later, Nate Nilsen came around the bases after an error by the second baseman, cutting into the Eskomos lead 3-2. In the top of the 7th inning, the Bulldogs had the tying on 3rd with two outs but couldn’t capitalize as Gray hit a sharp line drive at the shortstop, who ended the game with the catch.

The winning pitcher in the game was Reid Clark who went 3.2 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run, while striking out 4. The losing pitcher was Evan Gray who threw a complete game with 3 runs allowed and 6 strikeouts.

Ryan Bourgeault went 2-2 with 3 RBI’s in the win for the Eskomos, Quinn Fisher went 2-2, and Nick Emanuel went 1-2 with a double.

For the Bulldogs, Evan Gray went 1-3 with an RBI and Jacob Santkuyl went 1-2 with a run scored.

The Eskomos move to 1-0 on the year and will be back in action on April 16th when they travel to take on Mora. The Bulldogs drop to 0-3 on the year and will be back in action on April 18th when they travel to play North Woods.

Tyler Peterson can be contacted at tpeterson@northlandsportsonline.com