Duluth grounds into five double plays in loss
Saturday night in Rochester was all about the pitching between the Huskies and the Honkers.
The combined stats for the starting pitchers, Chad Tworek (Keiser University) for Rochester and Hayden Shenefield (Cal State Northridge) for Duluth was 16.1 innings, two runs allowed along with three walks while striking out 13 batters.
The Huskies (27-13, 3-1) scored first against Tworek as Nick Sogard (Loyola Marymount) came across home plate on a wild pitch in the first inning to make it 1-0.
Shenefield worked out of a jam in the fourth, but could not get out of the sixth as Rochester (18-22, 1-3) tied the game on an RBI single by Andy Armstrong (Oregon State), making it 1-1. Armstrong finished the night 3-4 with a double, RBI and walk.
The game stayed deadlocked throughout the remainder of the nine innings of regulation as the game transitioned into extra innings.
Duluth put themselves in position to win the game in the 11th as they loaded the bases with one out. Moments later, the inning came to an abrupt end as Hunter Bigge (Harvard) grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Huskies grounded into five double plays in the contest, in the second, third, eighth, tenth and eleventh innings.
That opportunity would prove to be the Huskies last as Alex Baeza (Hawaii) drove in the winning run with two outs on an RBI double to win the game for Rochester in walk off fashion.
With the loss, the Huskies drop to 27-13 on the year, but remain in first place in the overall standings of the North Division and tied for first in the second half race with a 3-1 record.
Duluth is back in action tomorrow as they take on the St. Clloud Rox on the road at 4:05 p.m. You can listen to live coverage of the game 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