Catch up on the state of the team
Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies Baseball Club has passed the quarter mark of the season and currently stand three games out of first place in the Great Plains East Division with an 8-13 record. The team recently completed a short three game road trip and begin a short three game homestand starting tonight looking to string some wins together.
Manager Marcus Pointer knows that the team doesn’t have the record he wants but “after everything that’s happened, we’re only 3 games back of first place and we have tons of room for improvement.” Pointer reiterated that this recent road trip was a fresh start of sorts. “For some reason I think getting out of town helped us out, you could see the guys were more relaxed and confident these last three games.” The team went 1-2 over the road trip, but all three games were decided by one run, and the overall play on the field was much cleaner.
Pitchers for the Huskies have been shorthanded lately due to injuries and pitch count restrictions, but the new arms coming to the team soon will surely help get things back on track. Pointer said that the “roster is starting to become complete, going from 10 to 17 pitchers in a week helps everyone.” The Huskies picked up a couple more players over this last weekend which will keep everyone fresh.
Being a manager and communicating with pitchers is extremely important as well when you play 72 games in 76 days, so you “have to communicate with pitchers about how they’re feeling, how many days they need off, etc.” In fact, last week Pointer had to resort to having position players throw multiple innings due to limits on how many pitches someone can throw, but when that happens Pointer tries to “turn it into a win-win situation and loosen everyone up cause having a position player go out there and strike guys out can get the other guys fired up.”
General Manager Greg Culver touched on the fact that “about 18 guys on our original opening day roster have been shut down by their college or because of injury.” Dealing with that many losses to a team is extremely hard to do, no matter the talent.
But Culver also noted that there’s “4 or 5 guys that will be on the team very soon, we’ll have some pitchers coming from different places, and with the NCAA’s postseason reaching its end, more guys will make their way here.” It’s also important to know that the deadline on temp contracts is coming up on June 21st, so more full-time contract players will be signed.
Like Pointer, Culver also pointed out that there’s no reason to panic as a fan because the team is only 3 games behind first place. He wants everyone to know that “there’s nowhere to go at this point but up. The kids and coaches are grinding, and good things are coming.” He wants the fans to be able to keep having faith in the Huskies and to “hang in there and watch us evolve.” Everyone has rough patches at some point in the year, but it does not define a team or a team’s season so keep having faith.
The Huskies face the St. Cloud Rox tonight at Wade Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:35 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 6:25 pm. Duluth Huskies and Northwoods League games are live streamed online at portal.stretchlive.com/nwl to watch.
Be sure to follow the Duluth Huskies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all season long. 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 26th 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.