FARGO, N.D. — Will Zimmerman continued his hot start to his RedHawks career as he went 3-for-4 with a home run for his first professional hit, a triple, and three runs batted in to lead Fargo-Moorhead to a 4-1 win over the Houston Apollos in front of 2,243 fans Saturday night at Newman Outdoor Field.

RedHawks’s starter Austin Ver Steeg pitched for 4.0 innings in his first professional start and gave up one run on three hits and three walks. He struck out three batters and lowered his ERA to 1.80 in 5.0 innings pitched on the season. RHP Michael Hope (2-1, 0.96 ERA) entered the game in the fifth inning in relief, and got the win after only allowing one hit and one walk in 2.0 innings pitched. RHP Blake Rogers got the save and faced the minimum in the ninth inning, striking out two while lowering his ERA to 6.75. It was his second save of the season.

Despite scoring only four runs, the RedHawks had 15 total baserunners in the game and had at least one in every inning after the first. Leo Pina and Will Zimmerman both went 3-for-4 and had two extra-base hits, and Zimmerman was the only RedHawks batter with an RBI (Pina scored on a passed ball after his triple in the second inning).

Houston starter Abdallah Aris (0-2, 6.39 ERA) got the loss after giving up two runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. In the fourth inning Daniel Aldrich tied the game with a one-out single but couldn’t score another run with two on and one out.

While impressive with his bat, Zimmerman has been equally competent in left field. After making a nice catch in Friday night’s game, Zimmerman made two extraordinary defensive plays in left field to strand a runner on second base and keep the one-run RedHawks lead.

The RedHawks and Apollos will conclude their series Sunday afternoon at 1:00 P.M. The RedHawks are expected to start LHP Kevin McGovern (2-0, 0.56 ERA) against the Apollos’ Matt Cronin (0-0, 0.00 ERA). Tickets can be found online at fmredhawks.com/tickets.

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By Chad Ekren, Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks