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AUGUSTA, NJ – The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, but Mother Nature aided the Sussex County Miners as they rallied in the eighth inning and eventually defeated the RedHawks 8-7 in extra innings before a crowd of 2,617 fans at Skylands Stadium.

The RedHawks jumped out to an early lead in the first. Drew Muren led the game off with a double followed by an RBI double from Zach Penprase making it 1-0.  Chad Mozingo would send a grounder up the middle being retired 4-3 but Miners’ starter Josh Wood came up limp. The right-hander planted wrong on his right leg and left the game with a knee injury and left the game and knuckleballer Zach Staniewicz came on in relief. Penprase advanced to third on the Mozingo ground ball and would be driven in by Joe Bonfe, who was playing in his first game since July 10, on a sac fly to right making it 2-0 after one inning of play.

Fargo-Moorhead added another run in both the second and the third. Frazier Hall started the inning with a walk, and Frank Salerno proceeded to lace a base hit up the middle. Brent Peterson, in his first at-bat of the series, belted an RBI double plating Hall to make it 3-0. In the third, Mozingo led off the frame with a walk and Joe Staley roped a hanging knuckleball into the alley in right-center. Staley trotted into second and Mozingo crossed home pushing the lead to 4-0.

Taylor Stanton started on the bump for Fargo-Moorhead. He faced four batters in the first three innings but nothing came of the base runners in those frames. The Miners’ got to Stanton in the fourth. Kenny Bryant sent a leadoff double to the wall in right giving Sussex County a runner in scoring position with no outs. Former RedHawk Ryan Mathews then tattooed a ball off the fence in right field and made it to third easily with a standup triple scoring Bryant. Two batters later Ryan Pineda, who had a pair of sacrifice flies last night, sent a sac fly to deep center scoring Mathews cutting Fargo-Moorhead’s lead to 4-2.

In the fifth the RedHawks made some defensive substitutions that would come into play later. Drew Muren was taken out of center field and Chad Mozingo slid over from left while Joe Dunigan went to left. Frazier Hall went from first to right and Tyler Peterson came in to play first base.

Joe Dunigan was later ejected in the eighth inning arguing a called third strike, leaving Manager Doug Simunic to make some decisions. Simunic brought in Connor Andrus to catch, while Staley moved from behind the dish to first leaving the RedHawks with no position players remaining for the rest of the game.

Stanton would settle down for the next three innings, and would not surrender a hit for the next three innings. In the top of the eighth inning the rains came and Stanton would call it a night. He went seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits with a pair of walks and five strikeouts.

The rains came and went, and suddenly the bats of Sussex County came alive. Rookie Tyler Thompson came on to start the bottom of the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Johnny Bladel. Two batters later Kenny Bryant belted a two run homer making it 5-4. Mathews then laced a single up the middle ending the night for Thompson after 0.1 of an inning.

Joe Harris came on to close out the eighth. Devin Thaut sent a single into right and Mathews advanced to third on a hit-and-run giving the Miners runners on the corners with one out. Pineda proceeded to belt a two RBI double followed by an RBI single from Cory Morales making it 7-5. Sussex County scored five runs on six hits  in the home half of the eighth.

Zach Penprase hit his second single of the game to leadoff the top of the ninth for Fargo-Moorhead. Chad Mozingo then laced a ball down the line in right that would allow him to walk into third base with his third triple of the season making it 7-6. Two batters later, Andrus was facing a 1-2 count and Miners’ closer Joe Testa hurled one past catcher Jayson Hernandez allowing Mozingo to scoot home tying the game 7-7. Sussex County would not score in the bottom of the ninth forcing extra innings.

After reliever Jonathan Chudy struck out Ryan Mathews, he gave up back-to-back walks to Thaut and Pineda. Dziomba proceeded to belt a walk-off double that bounced off the wall in left-center and back into the park giving the Miner’s an 8-7 win in both comeback and walk-off fashion.

Chudy (0-1, 5.40 ERA) takes the loss in relief while closer Joe Testa (1-2, 1.80 ERA) earns his first win of the season for his 1-2-3 frame in the top of the tenth.

With the loss, Fargo-Moorhead splits with Sussex County 2-2, their second split series of the season. The RedHawks drop to 18-36 while Sussex County improves to 20-28. The ‘Hawks start a series with the New Jersey Jackals tomorrow afternoon with Ty Kelley taking the mound.

Game Date: 07/18/2015

:Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks  7 AT Sussex County Miners  8 (EXTRA INNINGS)

                                 YTD                                   YTD
Fargo              AB  R  H BI   AVG  Sussex County      AB  R  H BI   AVG
D.Muren CF          3  1  1  0  .290  J.Bladel CF         4  1  3  0  .356
 T.Peterson 1B,LF   2  0  1  0  .211  S.Miranda 3B        3  0  1  0  .158
Z.Penprase SS       4  2  2  1  .258  K.Bryant 1B         5  2  2  2  .282
C.Mozingo CF,LF     4  2  1  1  .444  R.Mathews LF        4  2  2  1  .289
J.Bonfe DH          4  0  1  1  .125  D.Thaut DH          4  2  1  0  .282
J.Dunigan LF,RF     4  0  0  0  .129  R.Pineda 2B         3  1  2  2  .249
 C.Andrus C         1  0  0  0  .235  J.Dziomba RF        5  0  1  1  .214
J.Staley 1B,C       5  0  2  1  .231  C.Morales SS        4  0  1  2  .211
F.Hall 1B,RF        3  1  0  0  .048  J.Hernandez C       4  0  0  0  .231
F.Salerno 2B        4  1  1  0  .318       
B.Peterson 3B       4  0  1  2  .143       
                   38  7 10  6                           36  8 13  8

Fargo                2 2 1   0 0 0   0 0 2   0 -  7 10  1
Sussex County        0 0 0   2 0 0   0 5 0   1 -  8 13  1
2B--D.Muren (3), Z.Penprase (2), J.Staley (2), B.Peterson (1), K.Bryant
(11), R.Pineda (13), J.Dziomba (2). 3B--C.Mozingo (2), R.Mathews (1).
HR--K.Bryant (6). RBI--Z.Penprase (5), C.Mozingo (7), J.Bonfe (1), J.Staley
(3), B.Peterson  2 (2), K.Bryant  2 (18), R.Mathews (6), R.Pineda  2 (26),
J.Dziomba (3), C.Morales  2 (14). HP--S.Miranda (2). SF--J.Bonfe (1),
R.Pineda (5). SB--C.Mozingo (2), F.Hall (2). CS--J.Staley (1).
E--B.Peterson (2), J.Hernandez (4). 
LOB--Fargo 7, Sussex County 7. DP--F. Salerno(2B) - Z. Penprase(SS), F.
Salerno(2B) - Z. Penprase(SS) - F. Hall(1B). 
                                                                YTD
                                 IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR     ERA
 Fargo
T.Stanton                       7.0   5   2   2   2   5   0    2.70
T.Thompson                      0.1   3   3   3   0   0   1    6.75
J.Harris                        0.2   3   2   2   0   1   0    9.00
J.Chudy (L,0-1)                 1.1   2   1   1   3   2   0    5.40
                              9.1    13   8   8   5   8   1
 Sussex County
J.Wood                          0.1   2   2   2   0   0   0    5.35
Z.Staniewicz                    4.2   4   3   3   2   2   0    4.70
J.Mueller                       2.0   2   0   0   1   1   0    3.52
T.Amezcua                       0.2   0   0   0   1   2   0    3.86
M.Suk                           0.1   0   0   0   1   1   0    2.25
J.Testa (W,1-2)                 2.0   2   2   2   0   3   0    1.80
                               10    10   7   7   5   9   0
WP--J.Testa (3). HB--T.Stanton (1). SO--T.Peterson, J.Dunigan 3, C.Andrus,
J.Staley 2, F.Hall, B.Peterson, R.Mathews, D.Thaut 2, J.Dziomba, C.Morales,
J.Hernandez 3. BB--Z.Penprase, C.Mozingo, F.Hall 2, F.Salerno, J.Bladel,
S.Miranda, R.Mathews, D.Thaut, R.Pineda. BF--T.Stanton 27 (54), T.Thompson
4 (16), J.Harris 4 (9), J.Chudy 8 (10), J.Wood 3 (184), Z.Staniewicz 20
(33), J.Mueller 8 (72), T.Amezcua 3 (120), M.Suk 2 (109), J.Testa 8 (97).
P-S--T.Stanton 116-74, T.Thompson 10-8, J.Harris 14-9, J.Chudy 42-21,
J.Wood 11-7, Z.Staniewicz 66-44, J.Mueller 30-19, T.Amezcua 12-7, M.Suk
13-6, J.Testa 37-25. 
T--4:01.  A--2617

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