Six game win streak catapults Huskies into 1st place
Duluth, Minn — The Huskies currently stand with a 9-4 record in the 2nd half and now sit in 1st place in the Great Plains East Division one full game ahead of the La Crosse Loggers and the Eau Claire Express who are tied for second place. Offense continues to be the driving force for the team, as they averaged nine runs per game over this last week and also got strong outings from Cole Milam and Schuyler Hill on the mound.
Last Friday on July 12th game two against Thunder Bay took place and the Huskies managed to out-hit the Border Cats and sweep the series by a final score of 11-8. Both teams put up a high amount of runs as the score read 9-5 after just five innings. Neither team was able to score in the 6th, 7th, or 8th innings and then each team put up two runs in the 9th. The top of the order for the Huskies was the driving force as Lance Ford, Nic Kent, and Alex Tappen combined to go 8-14 with 6 RBI’s and scored 5 runs. Erik Kaiser came in out of the bullpen and displayed his dominance as he threw two scoreless innings, raising his streak to 11 consecutive innings without allowing a run.
A pivotal series against the Loggers began the next day which could’ve decided whether or not Duluth would jump into 2nd place in the standings. They got off to a great start though when Schuyler Hill threw 6 scoreless innings en route to a 6-0 shutout of La Crosse. Duluth found just the right amount of offensive production when they scored two in the 1st inning, another in the 3rd, and three more in the 7th to keep a steady lead. The Loggers also helped out the Huskies tremendously with a total of 5 errors committed throughout the game; 2 of them were on catcher Bo Xi Hsiao that directly scored two runs. Nic Kent and Kyle Jacobsen each added 4 total hits and combined to score 3 runs as Owen Meaney and Jack Corbell kept the shut out intact by allowing no runs in the last three innings.
Cole Milam was on the mound for Duluth the next day and built off of his last start on July 7th by allowing just one run and scattering 6 hits across 6 innings of work in the 6-3 win. Duluth rode the backs of Nic Kent and Preston Hartsell on offense who each went a perfect 8-8 and brought home 3 combined runs, while Alex Tappen added 2 hits and an RBI as the cleanup hitter. The game seemed to be out of reach as the Huskies were in front 6-1 as the 8th inning got started, but La Crosse got some momentum late and tallied a couple runs to come within 3 runs of tying it up, but Darren Jansen shut it down to earn Duluth their 2nd straight sweep and tied up La Crosse for 2nd place in the division.
Yesterday the Huskies started yet another series against the Border Cats and easily won 13-5. The Express also lost last night which opened up the 1st place spot for Duluth to take ahold of. Colton Williams and Michael Kashou both made their Huskies debuts and combined to allow 4 runs in 6 innings. Which wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things since 13 runs were scored throughout the night. Lance Ford extended his hitting streak to five games in which he has hit .440 and logged 4 RBI’s while Kyle Jacobsen went 3-3 with a couple RBI’s. Not to mention Max Guzman who hit another round-tripper and Danny Zimmerman who doubled twice and batted home two Huskies.
The Huskies go for the two-game sweep tonight against Thunder Bay. 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. 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.
