The Big Sticks were back in Butte, MT looking to get their first victory of the second half after dropping the first game of the series to the Tommyknockers on Friday.

Entering the game with a 3.03 ERA and a 3-1 record, was Big Sticks starting pitcher Josh Tucker. The starting pitcher for the Tommyknockers, with a 3.46 ERA in 13 innings, was Kyle Wellman.

The Tommyknockers got on the board first in the bottom of the first as it was Nick Hansen driving in another run this series as he singled to score Lucero and later in the inning, Dorbrinski scored on a passed ball to put the Tommyknockers up 2-0.

The Big Sticks fired back in the top of the second as it was Joe Osborn coming up big again with another home run, this one a two-run shot to tie the game up at two.

Moving ahead to the top of the fourth when the Big Sticks were able to take the lead after Travis Ray Jr. singled to lead off the inning and came all the way around to score on a passed ball. This made it a 3-2 lead for the Sticks, but they weren’t done there as they piled on more runs in the fifth as Angel De La Cruz doubled to score Stafford, and Travis Ray and Wyatt Setian cracked back-to-back RBI singled to put the Sticks up 6-2.

Josh Tucker worked through the fifth inning without allowing another run and striking out six before handing it over to his bullpen consisting of Brady Salyards and Dan Rivera, who combined to throw shutout innings of two and one, respectively.

Pat Miner took over pitching duties for the ninth, with the Big Sticks still up by four, and surrendered only one run to give the Sticks their first win of the second half.

The Big Sticks scored 6 runs on 13 hits with no errors, and the Tommyknockers got only 3 runs on 4 hits with no errors. Josh Tucker receives credit for the win, his fourth, and Wellman is tacked with the loss as he went 4.2 innings and gave up all 13 Big Stick hits.

The Sticks move to 1-1 in the second half and improve their overall record to 18-14, while Mining City takes their first loss this half to go to 2-1 and 18-16 overall.

The two teams will face off in Butte one last time for the rubber match of the series, first pitch set for 5:35 PM MDT.