Huskies bats absent in 5-0 loss
Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies and the Bismarck Larks faced off Tuesday night in the first meeting of the season between the two teams.
The Larks put up 2 runs on the Huskies in the top of the 1st inning on back to back RBI singles from Brian Leonhardt and Jack Chernow that scored Wyatt Ulrich and David Mendham. They were able to tack on one more in the 4th when Cooper Bowman came home on a wild pitch after he stole 2nd base and advanced to 3rd base on a passed ball.
As the game entered the halfway point, neither team really had a breakout inning where a bunch of runs were scored. The Larks held a 3 run lead; 2 of which came in the top of the 1st. Larks Starting Pitcher Rogers retired 22 out of the 27 Huskies batters he faced in his outing.
Duluth managed to get their first and only man in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning but couldn’t capitalize. Dan Hansen then came in to relieve Mason Bryant in the top of the 7th for his 3rd season appearance. Bryant allowed 3 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits and struck out 8 while walking 6 in 6 IP.
Then Zack Gregory and Wyatt Ulrich came around home after Jack Chernow hit a bloop double over Carter Putz’s head at 1st base to stretch Bismarck’s lead to 5-0. Hansen would strike out 2 straight to strand Larks at 2nd and 3rd to minimize the damage. Hansen was replaced by Alex Rao in the top of the 8th inning after throwing one inning in which he allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits, 2 walks, and struck 3 out.
Rao left after throwing a scoreless 8th inning and was replaced by Cole Milam who struck out the Larks’ side to send it to the bottom of the 9th inning. Gavin Rogers was replaced by Evan Miller in the bottom of the 9th. Rogers pitched a gem; giving up no runs on 2 hits, walked only 3, and struck out 7 in 8 IP.
Miller would record three straight outs to secure the shutout win for Bismarck and take a 1-0 series lead over Duluth.
The Huskies face the Larks once again tomorrow night at Wade Stadium with first pitch set for 6:35 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 6:25 pm. All 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.
