After a rainout in Casper on Thursday, the Big Sticks kicked off the second half of the season on Friday in Butte, MT against the Mining City Tommyknockers.

Starting on the mound for the Big Sticks was Parker Stohr, who entered the game coming off four straight wins to go along with a 3.18 ERA. Pitching for the Tommyknockers, in his second appearance of the season, was Jeremy Husband.

The Tommyknockers got the first two runs of the game in the second inning by way of an error to score Melfi, and a wild pitch to score Wilbur.

The Big Sticks threatened to score in the third inning as they were able to draw three walks to load the bases but ended up not putting a ball in play as they Husband struck out the side to escape the inning unfazed. The Tommyknockers struck in a big way in the bottom of the third on a three-run homerun by Nick Hansen to make it a 5-0 lead for the home team.

Connor Phelan came in from the bullpen in the top of the fourth and Angel De La Cruz sent the first pitch of the inning over the wall in left field to get the Sticks on the board. Phelan ended the top of the fourth only throwing four more pitches to get the final three outs. The Tommyknocker were able to immediately match the run they gave up on an RBI triple by Dobrinski to score Kreiger.

Fast forward to the top of the seventh were the Big Sticks the were able to start their rally attempt thanks to Ryan Stafford hitting an RBI triple of his own to score Setian and Thurston and cut the Tommyknocker lead to 6-3.

The Big Sticks continued to rally in the top of the ninth as Carson Lundmark was able to drive in Jakobe Smith to shrink the deficit to only two runs. Tommyknocker closer, Dylan Wilhelm was able to strike out the next two batter to lock down the save and secure the Mining City win.

The Big Sticks scored 4 runs on 9 hits and committed 1 error, and the Tommyknockers prevailed with 6 runs on 8 hits and no errors. The winning pitcher is Connor Phelan, earning his fifth win, and Parker Stohr takes the loss, only his second, after going six innings and giving up four earned runs.

The Mining City Tommyknockers improve to 2-0 to start the second half and now have an 18-15 cumulative record. The Big Sticks take their first loss of the half, falling to 0-1, and are now 17-14 overall.

The two teams are back at it for game two of the series in Butte on Saturday, July 3 with first pitch set for 7:05 PM MDT.