The Big Sticks began a 3-game series with the Canyon County Spuds in Caldwell, Idaho Monday night as part of a 6-game road trip for the Sticks. Josh Tucker was the starter on the mound for the Big Sticks while Gary Grosjean received the call for the Spuds on the mound. The scoring began early for the Sticks as they plated a run in the top of the first inning off an RBI single from Matt Olive to get out in front early against the Spuds. The Sticks went on to score a run in both the third and fourth inning and a Wyatt Setian 2-run Home Run in the top of the fifth inning grew the lead out to 5-0. While the Big Sticks were able to get the offense going early, the Spuds bats didn’t join the game until the sixth inning. Josh Tucker went through 5 innings of work with minimal damage from the Spuds offense until a 2-run Home Run put the Spuds on the board to make it 5-2 in favor of the Big Sticks. Tucker would respond with a strikeout swinging after the home run then was pulled from the game. Matt Johnston came on in relief for Tucker and faced the final two batters in the bottom of the sixth inning. Johnston gave up a walk to his first batter before getting the next hitter to ground into a 4-3 double play to end the inning. The Sticks would respond to the Spuds two runs with four of their own in next half inning to grow their lead out to 9-2. Johnston would stay on to pitch the bottom of the seventh inning but wouldn’t get out of the inning as Calvin Watkins came on in relief for the final out after Johnston gave up a 2-run Triple to cut the Sticks lead to 9-4. Watkins would stay on the finish the game for the Sticks on the mound. The Big Sticks went on to win the game with a final score of 9-4. Josh Tucker received the win on the mound while Grosjean was credited with the loss for the Spuds.

Game 2 saw the Big Sticks offense at its best. Parker Stohr started on the mound for the Sticks while Danny Burns started on the mound for the Spuds. After scoring 1 run in the top of the first inning. Stohr would go on to strike out the side in the bottom half of the first inning. Then, the Sticks went on to put up 4 runs in the second inning to extend their early lead to 5-0. The Spuds decided to join the offensive display as they scored 1 run in the second inning and then got Parker Stohr into a jam in the bottom of the third inning. Stohr was able to get out of the inning and hold the Sticks lead at 5-4 after the Spuds scored 3 runs off him. The Sticks responded to the Spuds 3-run bottom of the third inning with a 6-run top of the fourth inning. From there on out, the game was all Big Sticks as they would go on to put up 9 more runs from the fifth inning on. Matt Slowik and Daniel Rivera came on in relief for the Sticks after Parker Stohr’s day was done. Slowik came on in the fifth inning for Stohr and threw two innings and gave up 3 runs while Rivera came on in the seventh inning for Slowik and gave up 0 runs in three innings of work. When it was all said and done, the Big Sticks walked away from Tuesday night’s game with 22 total hits as a team, while scoring 20 runs to win the game 20-7. Stohr was credited with the win on the mound while Burns received the loss. With the win in Tuesday night’s matchup, the Sticks were able to clinch the second Lewis Division playoff spot. The Big Sticks will face the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs next week in the divisional round of the Expedition League Playoffs.

The final game of the series saw Joe Harris start on the mound for the Sticks as they looked for a series sweep while Max Holtzclaw received the start for the Spuds. Unlike the previous two games, the Big Sticks were held scoreless in the first inning. The Spuds were the ones who struck first in the run column in Wednesday night’s game as they scored 1 run in the bottom of the first inning to get out ahead to an early 1-0 lead. The lead wouldn’t last long as the Sticks put up 5 runs in the top of the second inning on 5 hits to take a 5-1 lead over the Spuds. The Big Sticks put up another run in the top of the third inning which grew their lead up to 6-1. After the first inning, Harris settled down on the mound and threw two scoreless innings for the Sticks. Michael Reddick came on in relief for Harris in the fourth inning and threw two scoreless innings of his own to keep the Spuds hitters at bay. Although he did give up 2 hits and walk 2 batters, Reddick went on to record all 6 outs during his appearance on strikeouts. Mason Hoover moved over from third base to the pitcher’s mound to replace Reddick after his two innings of work in the sixth inning. Hoover gave up 1 run in the bottom of the sixth as the Spuds cut the Sticks lead down to 4 runs, but it wouldn’t last that way for long as the Big Sticks went and scored 1 run of their own in the top of the seventh inning to grow their lead back to 5 runs. The bottom of the seventh inning was painless for Hoover as he got the Spuds to go down in order to end the game. Sticks won the game with a final score of 7-2 as Harris received the win on the mound while Holtzclaw was credited with the loss. Due to a weather delay in the top of the first inning, the game was shortened to a seven-inning game Wednesday night.

The Big Sticks return home for the final two games of the 2021 regular season as they will face the Spuds for a brief 2-game series starting Friday, August 6. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM MDT for both Friday and Saturday’s games as the Sticks look to close out the season with a second sweep of the Spuds and up their winning streak to 7 games going into the playoffs.