Huskies defeat Rochester for the first time this season
Duluth won their third straight game on Friday night with a 3-2 win over the Rochester Honkers (17-22, 0-3) at Mayo Field in Rochester, Minnesota.
The Huskies (27-12, 3-0) scored all three of their runs in the fifth inning and held on to the lead for the remainder of the contest.
Duluth starting pitcher, Hunter Bigge (Harvard) tossed six innings on the mound, allowing one run on four hits while striking out seven and walking three. His effort was enough to be the winning pitcher.
The game stayed scoreless as the first four innings came and went quickly. In the frame, seven Huskies came to the plate and three runs scored on three hits and two errors.
The deadlock broke on an RBI single by Julian Escobedo (San Diego State) that scored Kyle Jacobsen (South Carolina). Moments later, Augie Isaacson (Friends University) hit an RBI sacrifice fly that brought in Michael McCann (Texas), doubling the Duluth lead.
The inning was capped off by an error that scored Escobedo give the Huskies a 3-0 lead midway through the contest.
In the sixth, Bigge surrendered his only run on the mound as he carried a no-hitter into the inning. The no-no was broken up on a solo homerun off the bat of Logan Denholm (UC Davis), his first of the year, putting the Honkers on the board.
In the seventh, Tim Holdgrafer (Cal Poly Pomona) took over for Bigge on the mound. Holdgrafer provided three innings of work out of the bullpen, surrendering one run on three hits.
In his first inning of relief, Holdgrafer allowed a solo homerun by Alex Baeza (Hawaii), launching his first homerun of the year over the left-field wall, making it a 3-2 game.
In the eighth, Rochester had runners at the corners with nobody out before the Huskies miraculously got out of the jam. The inning ended on a 9-2 double play as Jacobsen made a catch in right field before gunning down a runner at home plate that got the Huskies out of the inning unscathed.
The Huskies offense was held hitless in the final three innings, but they were able to hold on to win as Holdgrafer slammed the door on the Honkers in the ninth, giving Duluth their first win over Rochester of the season.
With the win, the Huskies improve to 27-12 and 3-0 in the second half, staying in first place in both the overall and second half standings.
Duluth returns to action tomorrow as they take on the Rochester Honkers once again on the road at 7:05 p.m. You can listen to all of the action live 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
