By Merchants beat writer Brandon Baumgartner

Fargo, ND – The Jamestown Miller Lite Merchants saw their five game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Mayville Redcaps Wednesday night at Merchant Field.

Batting with three pitchers in the lineup the Merchants were unable to string hits together against the soft tossing Mayville pitchers.

After scoring two in the first and one in the second the Merchant bats went cold for the next five innings as Mayville came back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.

In the eighth, Joe Vannett led off with a walk and advanced to third after a ground out and a wild pitch. Brandon Baumgartner then hit a routine ground out to the Mayville second baseman that was playing back which allowed Vannett to easily score from third to tie the game up.

In the ninth, Baumgartner allowed a one out walk to Mayville’s catcher, after a wild pitch and a strikeout Mayville’s sixth batter blooped a two-out  single into center field that allowed the Redcaps to take a 5-4 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth the Merchants were able to put two runners on with two outs but Bryan Erstad popped up to third to end the game.

“We really should have pulled this one out tonight, but who cares we have Enderlin on Friday. The Mayor’s coming to town!” stated the Mayor of Enderlin, Jeff Nold, as he crushed a freshly opened Beast.

The Merchants travel to take on the Indies of Enderlin Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 PM; the M’s will depart on the team bus around 5:00 PM at Nold’s house.

NOTES: Brandon Baumgartner went 1-4 at the plate and extended his hit streak to 13 games.