DICKINSON — It’s never easy to play with a lead and even harder to win in the middle innings in baseball, but the Badlands Big Sticks have started off the 2024 season doing just that, as starting righthander Sam Nitzke struck out 5 in six innings of work on the way to a 2-0 record for the home-team as right-fielder Dane Jones went yard and left-fielder Kaden Carpenter drove in 3 runs in the Tuesday, May 28, 9-0 win at Dakota Community Bank & Trust Ballpark. The ’Sticks scored all the runs they would need in the first inning, taking a quick 2-0 lead and soldiering through the rest of the way on disciplined baseball in front of another solid DCB&TB crowd. “The key to this game was our hitters were disciplined at the plate,” Big Sticks manager Jordan Price said.
“They took their hacks when it was time, but they really laid-off and got on base to make some good things happen.” The Big Sticks more than doubled the Huskies’ plate production with 9 hits, as Nitzke leashed Duluth all-night long and scattered 4 hits while the relief-staff of Jack Soares, Alex James and Dimitrios Bourmas held the visitors hitless down the stretch and fanned 2 more batters in the final three frames. The hosts jumped out to a quick lead on the strength of a walk to centerfielder Quade Peters, who immediately stole second and scored on a double to right field by Dickinson native and third-baseman Troy Berg, before Berg crossed home on a single from Carpenter.
Peters ended up going 1-for-3 .