Cole Milam throws six shutout innings
Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies and the Eau Claire Express played the 3rd game of their series on Sunday afternoon. The Express convincingly won yesterday’s game, with the final score being 9-1, dropping Duluth to a 2-2 record in the 2nd half. Cole Milam took the mound for the Huskies in his 2nd start of the year to face Craig Colen of Eau Claire.
Both teams would hit back to back two-out triples in the 1st inning, but the Huskies would be the ones to take advantage of it when Danny Zimmerman hit a hard ground ball to Brandon Dieter at Shortstop who let it go by him for his first error in 107 consecutive innings. Alex Tappen, who hit the triple, would score on the play to grab a one-run Huskies lead.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Matt Hogan led off with a base hit into right field, and then stole 2nd base and advanced to 3rd on a throwing error by catcher David LaManna. Nic Kent would then get runners on the corners with no outs after Wade Meckler drew a walk. Hogan was able to cross home afterward to make it 2-0 when Kent hit a fielder’s choice. Kent would copy Hogan when he stole 2nd base and went to 3rd on another throwing error from LaManna, and was easily scored when Danny Zimmerman line a double off the wall in right-center field. The Huskies took a 3-0 lead into the start of the 4th inning.
Cole Milam would continue to pitch efficiently in his best appearance of the summer, allowing no runs and logging zero walks through 6 full innings. He gave up an average of one hit per inning but scattered them few and far between to keep the Express from being able to score.
Wade Meckler got his first hit of the afternoon with a one-out triple to right center in the bottom half of the 5th, and Nic Kent brought him home with a sac fly to log his 18th RBI of the summer.
Duluth kept up the offensive pressure as Danny Zimmerman and Max Guzman both got on base to begin the inning. The next batter Tyler Lozano would bring them both home with a 2-RBI double to the center field wall but would be thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. But nevertheless, the score was still 6-0 in favor of the Huskies as the 7th inning got underway. Cole Milam would exit the game and be relieved by Evan Yedinak as well. Milam threw a gem, giving up no runs on 6 hits, struck out 3, and walked none.
Cole Cabrera, who now holds a .640 on-base percentage and a .372 batting average, scored Eau Claire’s first two runs of the day with a 2-RBI double. Brandon Dieter got on base earlier in the inning with a double of his own and Brock Burton walked which put runners on the corners for Cabrera. But Yedinak got the final out of the inning to keep it a 4-run ballgame.
Rece Finck replaced Craig Colen in the bottom frame of the 7th after he gave up 6 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, struck out 2, and walked 2. He would set down the Huskies in order as the 8th inning got underway.
After neither team scored a run in the 8th, Jack Corbell would come in to close it down in the top of the 9th and try to secure the win. Corbell last pitched on July 4th against Willmar and earned a save. He would induce a few groundouts to allow no runs and end the ballgame with a final score of 6-2 Duluth.
The Huskies will hit the road tomorrow to finish the series against Eau Claire and then will travel to Willmar and Thunder Bay for two separate two-game sets. First pitch tomorrow is 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.
