Huskies lose critical game at home
The Huskies came into plat on Monday with a chance to clinch the first half title, but suffered a setback as they dropped the series opener to the Rochester Honkers 5-4.
Duluth got on the board right away as Nicholas Sogard (Loyola-Marymount) singled in Augie Isaacson (Friends University) who lead off the game with a double to give the Huskies the quick 1-0 lead. Duluth would add another run in the inning when John Lagatutta (Cal-Berkley) drove in Sogard to give the Huskies the 2-0 advantage.
In the second inning, Duluth scored again as Augie Isaacson who singled with two outs, came into score on a wild pitch to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.
Rochester would battle back in the third inning when Michael Michalak (Illinois) brought in Jaylen McLaughlin (Nevada) on a one-out RBI single to bring the Honkers back within two runs. Rochester kept the bats rolling in the fourth when they scored three more runs to give themselves their first lead of the game at 4-3.
In the fifth, Rochester added an insurance run courtesy of a solo-homerun by Matt Hardy (UC-Riverside), that would put the Honkers up 5-3.
One inning later, Duluth would get that run back as Kyle Jacobson (South Carolina), who tripled with one out, would eventually come around to score on a sacrifice fly by Trevin Esquerra (Loyola-Marymount) to pull the Huskies within one at 5-4. Esquerra’s team leading 22nd RBI of the season.
But the homerun by Hardy would prove to be the difference as the Huskies were unable to rally as they would fall to Rochester 5-4. With the loss, the Huskies are now 24-11 on the season and Rochester improves to 16-19. With the loss and a win by Bismarck, the Huskies will now need a win and a loss by the Larks on the final day of the first half to win the first half title for the North Division.
The Huskies and the Honkers will do it again at Wade Stadium in Duluth on Tuesday to wrap up the first half of the regular season at 6:35. The game can be heard on 92.1 the Fan in and around Duluth.
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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.