Ten Run 4^th inning for Eau Claire spells doom for Duluth

Ryne Ryskoski

Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies and the Eau Claire Express faced off Saturday night in the first of a two-game set at Carson Park this weekend. The Huskies looked to get back on track after losing Friday night 8-1 against Thunder Bay by sending out Cole Milam on the mound to face Alec Baker of the Express.

Baker issued four straight walks to start the ballgame; bringing home the leadoff hitter Wade Meckler to give Duluth a 1-0 lead. Baker would immediately exit the game after those four walks as Jack Brown would take over for Eau Claire with no outs and the bases loaded. But Brown would pitch out of the jam to leave the Huskies with a one-run advantage.

The Express came back to load the bases with no outs for themselves in the bottom half of the 1^st for Vincent Martinez who struck out looking. A failed squeeze bunt attempt and an infield pop out to Carter Putz would strand all 3 baserunners to keep the score 1-0 in Duluth’s favor.

Justin Moore singled to center field for his second hit in as many days to bring home Collin Hopkins and extend Duluth’s lead to 2. Max Guzman then gave Duluth another run with a pop fly to deep center field that allowed Wade Meckler to cross home. Ramon Enriquez kept the runs coming with a 2-run home run that made it 5-0. That would be Enriquez’s 6^th home run of the season, ranking him 3^rd in the Northwoods League for round trippers.

The Express would put runners on 2^nd and 3^rd on a walk and a double to start their half of the 3^rd inning. Brandon Dieter and Sam Kohnle would proceed to hit back to back triples off of Milam to cut Duluth’s lead to 2 runs. All 3 of Eau Claire’s hits in the inning came on extra base hits. Troy Newell came in to relieve Cole Milam in his 4^th appearance of the year as the 4^th inning began.

The Express would load the bases with no outs for the 3^rd time in the ballgame for David LaManna who would hit an infield RBI single to make it 5-4 Huskies. The next batter Brandon Dieter walked to tie the game at 5. A 2 RBI double from Sam Kohnle would give Eau Claire their 4^th run of the inning and a 7-5 lead with still no outs in the inning and their 8^th run of the game would be scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 8-5. The inning wouldn’t end until after the Express scored five more runs from a walk, a single, and a double to make it 13-5. Newell would not finish the inning as Keaton Carattini entered the game and was able to get the last out needed. Eau Claire totaled 10 runs in the inning.

Eau Claire would get another shot at scoring when they loaded the bases for the umpteenth time with two outs in the 5^th inning for David LaManna who would draw another walk, giving the Express their 14^th run of the evening. Carattini would get a pop out to right field for the 3^rd out.

Tim Ewald would relieve Jack Brown as the 6^th inning began. Brown did a solid job over 5.2 IP as he was essentially the de facto starting pitcher for Eau Claire when he had to enter the game on short notice in just the 1^st inning.

Neither team would score for a while as Tyler Lozano stepped to the mound in the bottom of the 7^th inning with Eau Claire remaining up by 8 runs. He replaced Keaton Carattini who pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, keeping his season ERA at 0. Troy Beilsmith would come around to score on a 2-out RBI double from Brandon Dieter, making it a 10-run ballgame.

Duluth found the scoreboard in the top of the 9^th inning when Ramon Enriquez logged his 3^rd RBI of the night with a single into left field that Justin Moore to give the Huskies their 6^th run. A strikeout and a double play would end their hopes for a comeback however as Eau Claire took the 15-6 win.

The Huskies will stay at Carson Park tomorrow night to face the Express in game two of the series. First pitch is set for 2:05 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The Fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 1:55 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.