Huskies put up 13 runs on 15 hits
Duluth, Minn — Tonight the Huskies began a two-game series against the Larks in Bismarck looking to rebound after two straight one-run losses at the hands of the St. Cloud Rox after accomplishing a season-high six-game win streak. There were positives in the series however as Jared Milch and Schuyler Hill threw incredibly well in both games. Hill threw 6 innings back on Saturday and allowed one run in a 2-1 loss while Milch threw 8 complete innings and gave up one run in Sunday’s game.
Michael Kashou would look to do more of the same in his first start as a member of the Huskies in tonight’s game as he faced Drew Mesecher, who last faced Duluth on June 26th and tossed 6 shutout innings in the 21-0 blowout.
Kashou managed to work his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the 1st, but the Larks got to him in the 2nd starting when Brian Leonhardt crossed home to make it 1-0 on Clay Woeste’s fielder’s choice. There would then be two men on base for the two-hole hitting All-Star Zack Gregory who doubled to right field and brought home Woeste and Ty Condel for the 2nd and 3rd Bismarck runs of the inning. Two more men would get into scoring position once again and one would come home on Kashou’s 3rd wild pitch of the game and 4th walk, giving Bismarck an early four-run advantage.
Kyle Jacobsen got the Huskies on the board with an RBI fielder’s choice to cut the deficit to 3 on a fielder’s choice that brought home Drew Downing and then Alex Tappen batted home two more with a base hit, giving him 18 RBI’s on the season. But before the inning ended one more would come across to score to tie things up on an infield single from Preston Hartsell. Mesecher would be pulled for Drew Hensley at the start of the 4th after being roughed up for 4 runs in the 3rd inning.
Hensley had a rough start to his Larks debut when he loaded up the bases with no outs and walked home Matt Hogan and gave up a sac fly to Alex Tappen to give Duluth their first lead of the night at 6-4.
Kashou would leave runners on 1st and 2nd with one out in the bottom of the 5th for Erik Kaiser who made his 15th appearance on the bump tonight. He’d issue a walk to Brian Leonhardt and then throw a wild pitch to Ty Condel which allowed Wyatt Ulrich to score Bismarck’s 5th run and shed Duluth’s lead to one run.
After a scoreless 6th inning, Matt Hogan got the Huskies’ lead back up to two with a sac fly that scored Preston Hartsell and got his 1st RBI. Hogan had a nice day at the plate, getting a pair of hits and an RBI after going hitless in his last 3 games.
Then the Larks struck back and had a whale of a 7th inning as 3 runs were scored to get back the lead at 8-7 thanks to doubles from Brian Leonhardt and Brody Tanksley who scored the tying and go-ahead run. Bismarck’s pesky bottom of the order was the key for them as the bottom 3 hitters in the order combined to —.
But the Huskies came storming back starting when Max Guzman tied the game back up with a run-scoring single up the middle to bring home Kyle Jacobsen. AJ Defillipo replaced Hensley on the mound to start the inning and got Max Gamm out for the 1st out but struggled after allowing Guzman’s single as he hit Danny Zimmerman, which led to him being yanked for Fernando Diaz. He’d get the 2nd out but then a two-out rally began when Drew Downing hit a two-run single that gave Duluth a 10-8 lead. This was the 4th lead change of the night. Hartsell and Downing scored shortly after for the 4th and 5th runs and a 6th run would come home when Hogan scored on a wild pitch.
Owen Meaney got the call from the pen in the bottom half of the 8th to replace Kaiser and threw a scoreless 8th inning and closed it down in the 9th to take game one of the series.
The Huskies try to sweep the Larks tomorrow night. First pitch is set for 7:05 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The Fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 6:55 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.
