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The Lincoln Potters were back at McBean Tuesday night after their road trip down to Southern California. While The Bean is usually a hitter’s park, it was the pitchers who had the last laugh as the Potters took game one of the three-game series against the Medford Rogues 2-1 in extra innings.

“Our pitching was dominant tonight and I can't say enough about what they've been doing all season,” said manager Ryan Stevens. “Hitting sometimes has to be timely and tonight we grinded it out. It wasn't pretty at the dish, but we're grinding stuff out, we're trying to figure it out as we go.”

Lincoln fell behind in the second inning 1-0, but Chase Weissenborn (New Mexico) tied it up in the third with an RBI single. That did it for the scoring until the bottom of the tenth inning when Garen Caulfield (Arizona) blasted an RBI double to center field that scored Trey Furrey (Oklahoma Baptist) to give the Potters the victory.

“Garen’s got a big league approach, man, nothing really fazes the guy at the plate, in the clubhouse, or on the fields, and he figures it out,” said Stevens. “What I like about him is he squares a lot of balls up, even his outs are usually loud and he's kind of that guy that's carrying the offense right now and putting us on his back.”

On the pitching side, Kaden Riccomini (UC Davis) had a second strong start in a row, throwing six innings and allowing just three hits, one earned in the contest. Riccomini had his best stuff working when he was ahead in the count, striking out eight batters in the contest.

Stevens commented on the success Riccomini has shown this season, stating that, “He’s got four pitches he can throw for a strike and as an offensive player that's hard to square up and I think that's the biggest thing. I think when he got here, you know, he was struggling trying to find command on all four pitches and now he has it and you're seeing the success from that.”

Nate Kujawski (Evansville) and Ryan Sturgeon (LSU-Shreveport) combined to finish through the ninth inning on the bump, but it was Nick Dugan (Stanford) who earned the win in relief with a strong tenth inning. The win was Dugan’s second of the summer.

Stevens noted that winning game one of a series in dramatic fashion will wake up the Rogues for game two and Lincoln needs to take the positive momentum from the win and ride with it.

“I think when you have a walk off win that should translate into the next day and have the momentum in his dugout. We’ve got to find a way to get on the board early and stay ahead and stretch leads out,” said Stevens. “These one run ball games, one-one games, it's just tough on the pitching staff. We’ve got to find a way to have some offense.”

The Potters and Rogues will face off once again at McBean on Wednesday night. You can find tonight’s box score here.