Sioux Falls, S. Dak—A sterling pitching performance by Nolan Meredith and Levi Kiuchi propelled the Fremont Moo to a 1-0 win over the Sioux Falls Sunfish Monday night. The win was Fremont’s second shutout of the season and evened the five-game series between two of the top teams in the Clark Division in the second half at two games each.

In his first start for the Moo (28-14 overall/8-3 second half), Meredith (2-0) baffled Sunfish hitters by effectively locating his pitches and changing speeds. He allowed five hits while pitching seven shutout innings, an outing more than twice as long as his season-high. He walked two and struck out seven when allowing just one batter to reach third base.

The biggest scoring threat mounted by Sioux Falls (22-20/8-3) came in the bottom of the fourth. After Dylan Criquet Danielson led off the inning with a double, Benito Garcia followed two batters later with a single to left. Criquet Danielson tried to score from second on the hit, but a perfect relay from Ryan Koski to Luke White to Trey Nichols gunned down Criquet Danielson at the plate.

Kiuchi came out of the bullpen to begin the eighth and allowed a one-out bunt single in the eighth but permitted no more baserunners while earning his first save of the year.

Fremont’s lone run came in the fourth. In his return to his hometown of Sioux Falls, Jack Simonsen lined a one-out single to centerfield. Koski followed with a double to the rightfield corner, moving Simonsen to third. Trent Sellers followed with a sacrifice fly to right to score Simonsen and plate the only run of the game.

No Moo hitter had more than one hit, but EJ Taylor reached base three times on a single, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.

The five-game series concludes Tuesday in Sioux Falls, with the game slated for a 6:35 pm first pitch. The game can be heard on FremontMoo.com and Big Dog 98.9 FM and 1340 AM.