Huskies’ six game win streak comes to an end
Duluth, Minn — The first-place Huskies started off their four-game road trip against a fellow 1st place opponent in the St. Cloud Rox. On Friday night the Huskies swept the Border Cats with an 11-4 victory which was the team’s 3rd consecutive series sweep. Schuyler Hill would make his 2nd start of the season and looked to replicate his last outing against La Crosse a week ago when he tossed 6 scoreless innings and gave up just 3 hits. He would face Trevor Koening of the Rox, who gave up one run in his last start against Mankato nine days ago.
They both continued to display their dominance early on with the score deadlocked at 0-0 after the first four innings; Koening and Hill both held their opposition to just one hit over those 4 innings, and both men got out of bases-loaded jams. Any time a team got men on base it was typically because of walks, as Hill and Koening combined to walk 7 through the first 4 innings.
The Huskies’ threat came when they loaded the bases on for Alex Tappen in the 3rd who was fresh off a 2-4 performance on Friday night with a home run. Koening got him to ground out though to strand all baserunners while Schyler Hill got into his own bases-loaded jam, but earned back to back strikeouts in the bottom of the 4th to keep the score at 0-0.
St. Cloud broke through to score first when Jordan Barth batted home Ben Carew from 2nd with a single to take a one-run lead into the 6th inning. Carew got into scoring position on an odd play where Hopkins and Hill were trying to swap out balls when the live ball got away from them. Nevertheless, Hill would exit in the bottom of the 6th and give the ball to Dan Hansen after another great start in which he gave up one unearned run on just two hits and struck out 5 Rox batters in 5 complete innings.
Trevor Koening would also be relived in the 6th as Rhyse Dee took his place on the mound. He last faced Duluth on July 1st and threw 4 scoreless innings and held Duluth to one hit which earned him a save in the 8-3 St. Cloud win. Dee followed Koening’s lead in his 1st inning of work when he set down the Huskies’ side in order to maintain their one-run lead.
Collin Hopkins and Alex Tappen worked their way onto the corners with one out in the top of the 8th and Hopkins was brought home for the Huskies’ 1st run by the pinch-hitting Lance Ford to tie the game at 1-1. Neither team could score in the 9th inning which meant free baseball. The last time the two teams faced off in an extra-inning game was back on June 5th.
Both squads couldn’t bring home the intentionally placed runner at 2nd base which sent it to the 11th inning. Jack Corbell pitched great in the 9th and 10th as he kept St. Cloud from establishing much of any momentum. But in St. Cloud’s half of the 11th Jack Kelly scored Delano from 2nd to walk it off 2-1 and snap Duluth’s six game win streak.
The Huskies are back against the Rox tomorrow night at Joe Faber Field. First pitch is set for 4:05 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The Fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 3:55 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.
