A pitcher’s duel broke out at Wade Stadium and the Huskies (5-3) came out on top as walk-off winners over the Larks (3-5) on Kyle Hubbuch’s single to drive in Isaac Collins to seal a 1-0 victory on Wednesday.

Ryan Tapani (0-0) and Alex Ross (0-0) were the starters for Duluth and Bismarck, respectively, and both pitched their best games of the summer. Tapani held the Larks scoreless through 6.1 innings while Ross did the same to the Huskies through eight frames.

Joe Gonrowski got the Huskies out of a jam in the seventh with back-to-back strikeouts of Scooter Bynum and Ryan Anderson, and winning pitcher Stephen Yancey (2-1) pitched a hitless ninth to set up the Huskies for the walk-off a few minutes later.

Both teams had only tallied three hits each through eight and a half innings, and the Huskies had yet to put a baserunner past first base. That all changed when David Manasek (0-2) came on in relief of Ross in the ninth, trying to send it into extras. Isaac Collins started things off with a leadoff single, his second of the day, and Rob Emery bunted him over to second with an unselfish at-bat. With one out and Collins at second, Kyle Hubbuch ripped a 1-1 fastball over the head of Bynum in center, allowing Collins to trot home with zero resistance from the Larks defense.

After rounding first pumping his fist, Hubbuch was promptly chased around the field by a mob of his teammates before they finally got ahold of him in shallow left field and showered him with water from the dugout cooler in celebration.

The Huskies hit the road for two against the Willmar Stingers tomorrow, then head to Rochester for two before the All-Star break.