Duluth wins fourth straight game
The Duluth Huskies completed a home-and-home series sweep over arch rival Thunder Bay, defeating the Border Cats 6-1 on Wednesday. With Bismarck’s loss to St. Cloud, the Huskies find themselves alone atop the Northern Division standings.
Thunder Bay grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Evan Russell singled to drive in Garrett Saunders. Duluth tied the game in the bottom of the second when Julian Escobedo scored on an error. Augie Isaacson led off the fifth inning with a double, reached third base on a groundout and was brought home on a sacrifice fly by Tony Monroy. A pair of two-out singles in the top of the seventh gave Thunder Bay their best opportunity to rally but Kieran Shaw came out of the bullpen and induced a flyout to end the threat.
In the home half of the inning, Isaacson was hit by a pitch and Nick Sogard reached on error to put two runners aboard with no outs. A groundout advanced both runners before Chris Gilbody brought them in with a triple. Trevor Esquerra delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to give Duluth a 5-1 advantage. Kyle Jacobsen later drove in Esquerra with a two-out bloop single to shallow right field.
Thunder Bay got the leadoff batter on base in both the eighth and ninth innings but each time Tyler Cassmeyer was able to get out of the frame unscathed.
Winning pitcher Troy Newell (2-1) worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out five. Cassmeyer and Shaw combined to toss 2 1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit relief. Isaacson, Gilbody and Escobedo each finished with two hits to lead the Duluth offense.
Duluth improves to 11-5 as their winning streak extends to four straight games. Thunder Bay falls to 4-12 on the year, now having dropped six consecutive contests. Duluth hits the road for a four-game roadtrip at La Crosse and Eau Claire before retuning to Frank Wade Stadium on Tuesday
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The Duluth Huskies are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.duluthhuskies.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Huskies as your favorite team.
