As they had the night before, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks would find themselves trailing early, only to take the lead on their way to their second victory over the St. Paul Saints in this best-of-five series. Back-to-back homeruns in the bottom of the first-inning by Chris Jacobs and Correlle Prime led the way as the RedHawks held on for a 4-3 victory. That moved the team just a game away from advancing to the American Association championship series.

As they had the night before, the St. Paul Saints would take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Dan Motl led off with a base hit and moved to second when Brady Shoemaker was hit by a pitch two batters later. John Silviano then grounded down to first, but an error allowed him to reach, loading the bases with just one out. This was the Saints opportunity to really take the lead early, especially after Jeremy Martinez singled to drive home Motl. That brought Josh Allen to the plate, but a ground ball to third turned into a double-play and the rally was quickly squelched.

That proved to be huge, as the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks responded much as they did in Game 1, scoring three runs in the bottom of the frame to take a two run lead. With one down, Tim Colwell and Devan Ahart delivered back-to-back singles. That put runners at the corners. The RedHawks then went for the delayed steal, as Ahart was thrown out at second with Colwell scoring on the play. Chris Jacobs then followed with an opposite field drive that cleared the wall in right field for his first homerun of the playoffs to give Fargo the lead. Next up was Correlle Prime, who took the very next pitch, drilling it it over the wall in right-center for his first homer and suddenly the RedHawks had a 3-1 lead.

Both RedHawks starter Michael Tamburino and Saints hurler Landon Beck settled down after a shaky start to the contest, tossing scoreless frames in the second and third. However, in the fourth, Fargo-Moorhead would extend their lead to three. Prime got the inning started with a base hit. Beck retired the next two batters, striking out both batters, but two wild pitches allowed Prime to come around to score to make it a 4-1 game.

Tamburino responded to his team’s early support by taking command of this game. He allowed just three total hits from the second through the fifth innings but, in the sixth, St. Paul would finally get a run. Silviano doubled to start the inning and scored when Allen doubled to the wall in right-center.

Tamburino (1-0) gave up a leadoff double in the seventh, but the runner would not advance. The Fargo-Moorhead right-hander left after seven innings. He allowed eight hits and two runs, striking out five.

In the eighth, Joe Filomeno came on and retired the first two batters of the inning. The RedHawks then turned to Brent Jones, who was greeted by a solo homerun off the bat of Allen to cut the deficit to one.

St. Paul was just a run away from tying this contest, but closer Geoff Broussard came on in the ninth and closed the door. He struck out two of the three batters he faced to record his second save of the series, as the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks took a 2-0 series lead.

Correlle Prime rebounded from an 0-3 night in the series opener to go 2-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Chris Jacobs drove home two runs. Josh Allen had two hits and two RBI for the Saints.

These two teams have an off day on Friday before heading to St. Paul for Game 3.  Left-hander Tyler Pike (8-3, 3.19) will go for the RedHawks looking to close out the series. The Saints will send ace Eddie Medina (10-3, 3.45) to the hill. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.

Boxscore

By Robert Pannier