A Late Comeback falls short for Duluth
Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies fell 6-5 to the St. Cloud Rox in a tightly contested Father’s Day matchup at Joe Faber Field.
Each team had one baserunner in the first two innings before an RBI single from Nic Kent drove in Ian Jenkins gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the top of the third.
The Huskies maintained that lead until the sixth inning, where two St. Cloud runs came across to score. Second baseman Tyler Finke walked and came around to score on an Austin Smith wild pitch. Jordan Barth singled home Brady Harlan before being driven in himself on a Huskies error, which then spelled Smith from the contest.
St. Cloud took a 3-1 lead into the seventh inning before a leadoff single from Carter Putz gave the Huskies a breath of life. After having fouled off a 2-2 curveball to give himself another opportunity, Ramon Enriquez lifted a Cam Kline pitch over 390 feet to left field for a game-tying homer, his fourth of the year.
In the bottom half of the seventh, the St. Cloud shortstop Zack Elliot had a one-out walk before advancing on a Logan VanWey wild pitch. Taking a 3-2 fastball to the left-center gap for a double was Barth, driving in Elliot to retake the lead at 4-3. An infield single from Brady Harlan preceded a two-RBI triple from Barth to increase the St. Cloud lead heading into the eighth.
Wade Meckler led off the Huskies’ eighth with a double before stealing third on the first pitch of the next at-bat. Kent took the following pitch to right field for an RBI single, driving in Meckler and cutting into the St. Cloud lead. A Putz infield-single would drive in Kent to cut the St. Cloud lead to 6-5 entering the bottom of the eighth inning.
Alex Rao got the Rox out to end the eighth inning as the Huskies trailed St. Cloud by one entering the ninth.
A pinch-hitting Aaron Greenfield earned a two-out walk before stealing second and third. After Meckler walked, Greenfield was thrown out trying to steal home to end the ballgame.
Smith started the game for the Huskies, working 5 1/3 innings in which he gave up 3 earned runs while compiling 10 strikeouts.
The Huskies fall to 8-13 overall, with the second game of this series with St. Cloud taking place Monday, June 17 at Wade Stadium in Duluth. First pitch is at 6:35 CST with live game coverage beginning at 6:25 CST on 92.1 the Fan and twinsportsportshub.com.
Be sure to follow the Duluth Huskies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all season long and check out duluthhuskies.com for tickets to upcoming games. For more in-depth news on the Huskies, be sure to follow @XtraInningsWithRyne and @JoeChatzHuskies on Facebook.
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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 22 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 200 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.
