Duluth wins back-and-forth thriller over Border Cats
Heading into Tuesday night, the Huskies had won five of six meetings over the Northwoods only Canadian team, the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
Duluth (33-16, 9-4) continued their hot streak, winning their fourth straight game and their sixth against Thunder Bay (18-31, 5-8).
The Huskies took an early lead, scoring in the first inning against Border Cats starter Luke Malone (Texas A&M Corpus Christi). The run came on an RBI single by Chris Gilbody (Georgetown College) to make it 1-0.
Duluth increased their lead the following inning on a two-run homerun by General McArthur (Missouri Baptist), his second of the year, making it 3-0.
The Border Cats got on the board in the fourth against Huskies starting pitcher, Jason Braziel (Friends University) as Brady Gulakowski (North Carolina State) hit an RBI double to make it 3-1.
Malone continued to settle in on the mound for Thunder Bay and put zeros on the board, allowing the Border Cats to bring the deficit to one.
In the sixth, it was an RBI double by Kyle Czaplak (CSU-Monterey Bay) to make it 3-2.
In the seventh, Braziel exited the game after a solid outing, in which he pitched six and two-thirds inning, allowed five runs, four of which were earned, while striking out five opposing batters. In the process, he picked up his first win of the season.
In the inning, things opened up for both sides. The Huskies struck for three runs in the top half of the seventh, highlighted by a two-run homerun by Christian Jones (Washington), his second of the year.
In the bottom half of the inning, Thunder Bay mirrored Duluth, scoring three runs of their own, thanks to an RBI double by Cam Pearcey (Coastal Carolina) and an RBI single by Billy Cook (Pepperdine).
Duluth held a 6-5 lead as Kieran Shaw (Harvard) entered the game in relief. Duluth got their lead back to two thanks to a wild pitch that scored Sam Baier (Augustana), making it 7-5.
Thunder Bay tied it again in the eighth, sending the game to its final inning with the Huskies leading 7-6.
In the top half of the inning, Duluth scored a much-needed insurance run on an RBI double by Jones that scored Julian Escobedo (San Diego State).
In the bottom half of the inning, Tim Holdgrafer (Can Poly Pomona) entered on the mound to replace Shaw. The right-hander got the save, but allowed a run to score and forced a groundball to second with the bases loaded to end the game.
With the win, the Huskies continue to have the best record in the Northwoods League at 33-16 overall and 9-4 in the second half.
Duluth returns to action tomorrow as they take on the Border Cats again for the final time in 2018. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. central. As always, you can listen to live coverage of the game beginning at 5:55 p.m. 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
