Jun 28, 2006 - 02:09:25 CDT
Not even pitcher-friendly Bismarck Municipal Ballpark is safe when Tyler Liffrig connects.The Williston Keybirds' big first-baseman launched his 11th homer of the season Tuesday to lead Williston to an 8-2 win over the Bismarck Governors in the first game of a West Division doubleheader. He drove in the game-winning run in the seventh inning to give Williston a 5-4 win in the nightcap.
The free-falling Governors committed four errors in the second game to lose their sixth straight in divisional play. They are 1-6 in the division and 10-10 overall.
The Keybirds, on the other hand, are surging. They are 7-3 in the division and 16-9 overall, having won six in a row and 10 of 13.
The worst-case scenario was seeing Liffrig come to the plate in the seventh inning with the go-ahead run at second.
"We had to pitch to him because we had no place to put him," Bismarck coach Mike Skytland said. "Liffrrig and (Andrew) Leer were the two guys up and they are two guys who have done that."
Leer preceded Liffrig's single with one of his own that moved Ryan Lee into scoring position.
"It's not just (Liffrig)," Williston co-coach Shawn Cote said. "Everybody through the order did a good job tonight. When we have guys at the bottom of the order getting on and rolling the order over, it gives the top and middle of the order more looks."
Williston hit everything it saw hard in the opener.
The Keybirds hit for the cycle in a three-run third inning in the opener. Leer led off with a triple to right-center and came home when Liffrig hit an opposite-field homer to right field. Jason Marmon followed with a single to left and scored on Catlin Enno's two-out double to right-center.
Liffrig's home run total in less than half of his team's scheduled games is the fifth-best ever by a Williston player. The single-season record is 15 set by Cory Hanson in 1988 and tied by Bryan Lee in 1989. His blast off Josh Standing Rock tied Lee's career total of 29 from 1987-89.
Williston banged out three more hits and took advantage of an error by Bismarck first baseman John Fraase to go up 7-1 in the fourth inning.
The Governors loaded the bases with three straight singles with one out in their half of the fourth off Marmon. But Marmon struck out Dustin Wenzel and got Justin Connell to fly out to left to end the threat
Marmon pitched an efficient game. He scattered 11 hits, nine of those singles. He struck out two and walked none.
Unlike the Keybirds, the Governors had few clutch hits. Twice they got two-out hits and each led to runs. Matt Kranzler's single in the third scored Connell and Tim Jallen's fifth-inning double plated Cody Erhardt.
Williston pounded out 12 hits off Standing Elk. The Keybirds' first five hitters had nine hits, scored six runs and drove in four.
Dan Eichele had three hits and Erhardt two for the Governors.
Neither team played well in the early innings of the nightcap. Williston scored four runs in the first three innings on just one hit, that a run-scoring double to left by Liffrig. The Keybirds had three sacrifices, including a suicide squeeze, and took advantage of two Governor errors.
Bismarck used three Keybird errors in the first two innings to score three times. In the second, Connell reached on a throwing error by third baseman Catlin Enno, and went to second on the same play when Liffrig threw the ball past third base, allowing Standing Elk to score.
Connell then went to third when pitcher McHale Maristuen threw the ball into centerfield on a pickoff attempt. Connell later scored on a groundout to short by Matt Loomis.
Another Maristuen error on a pickoff in the fifth led to the tying run. Zach Wentz, who had doubled, went to third and scored on Daniel Eichele's sacrifice fly to right to tie it 4-4.
Liffrig broke the tie in the seventh and made a winner of Maristuen, who gave up seven hits, hit three batters and walked two. "McHale did a good job of getting outs he needed to to keep them from having a big inning," Cote said.
"That seems to be the way it's going," Skytland said. "We're hitting the ball hard at people or not getting a big hit at the right time. It will turn."
Maristuen survived four Williston errors, but the same couldn't be said for Kranzler, Bismarck's starting pitcher.
He gave up just five hits and walked three batters.
"He gave us a quality start and gave us a chance," Skytland said.
Williston 8, Bismarck 2
Williston 013 310 0 - 8 12 2
Bismarck 001 010 0 - 2 11 2
Jason Marmon and Devin Kvernum. Josh Standing Elk, Justin Connell (6) and Torey Bohan. W- Marmon. L-Standing Elk. HR Williston, Tyler Liffrig.
Highlights: Williston - Ryan Lee 2-5, double. Andy Leer 2-5, triple, 2 runs. Liffrig 2-4, homer, 2 runs, 2 RBIs. Marmon 7 IP, 2-4. Devin Kvernum 2-4. Bismarck - Cody Erhardt 2-4. Dan Eichele 3-4.
Williston 5, Bismarck 4
Williston 022 000 0 - 5 5 4
Bismarck 120 010 0 - 4 7 4
McHale Maristuen and Devin Kvernum. Matt Kranzler and Justin Connell.
W-Maristuen. L-Kranzler. HR None.
Highlights: Williston - Tyler Liffrig 2-4, double, 2 RBIs. Ryan Lee 2 runs. Maristuen 7 IP, 7 hits, 5 K. Bismarck - Zach Wentz 2-4, double, 1 RBI. John Fraase 2-2.
Records: Williston 7-3 Western Division, 16-9 overall; Bismarck 1-6 , 10-10 overall.
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