Huskies go 3-3 in week nine
Duluth, Minn — The Huskies currently stand with a 12-7 record in the 2nd half and are in 1st place in the Great Plains East Division tied with the Eau Claire Express and two games ahead of La Crosse. After pulling off their 3rd consecutive sweep, the Huskies fell victim to the St. Cloud Rox in both games of their two-game series to snap their six-game win streak. The last time the Huskies were swept was against the Eau Claire Express back on June 30th, 25 days ago. They’d rebound to take two out of their next three contests however to stay in contention for the top spot in the division.
Last Friday Duluth finished a sweep of the Border Cats 11-4 for their 6th straight win. Friday’s victory also meant that the Border Cup will remain in Wade Stadium for the 6th consecutive season. The Huskies used a proficient offensive attack to stifle Jordan Jackson and knock him out of the game after two innings and 4 runs given up. They scored in five straight innings starting with a four-spot in the 2nd inning, and Alex Tappen and Danny Zimmerman provided the brunt of the 11 runs. The pair combined to knock in 4 runs and had 4 hits while four other Huskies had multi-hit games, including Kyle Jacobsen, Preston Hartsell, Max Gamm, and Collin Hopkins. Ricky Reynoso may not have pitched as well as he hoped to but giving up 3 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings of work was enough to get the job done. Owen Meaney and Keaton Carattini pitched lights out in the 8th and 9th frames to shut down the game as well.
On Saturday the two-game series against St. Cloud began and the Rox prevailed in 11 innings to take game one. The game was tied at 1-1 heading into extra innings as Schuyler Hill and Trevor Koenig pitched very strong. Hill gave up just one unearned run on 2 hits through 5 innings while Koenig struck out 5 and allowed one hit in his 5 innings. Neither team could bring home the placed runner at 2nd base in the 10th inning but Jordan Barth knocked in the game-winning run for St. Cloud in the 11th to snap Duluth’s win streak and snatch game one. The only Husky run was scored by Collin Hopkins in the top of the 8th when he scored on a suicide squeeze bunt from Lance Ford. Alex Tappen had another good day at the plate with two hits to his name.
Game two was more of the same as both team’s pitching was at its peak, with neither team scoring a run until the 8th inning when Hance Smith scored on an error for the only run of the day. Jared Milch threw his 2nd straight quality start, going 8 complete innings and allowing 5 hits and striking out 4. His season ERA stood at 1.90 after the game was completed. Ben Dotzler was the starter for St. Cloud and also went 8 innings, surrendering three hits and allowing no Huskies to score. Just three hits were logged by Duluth in the ballgame and they were scattered meaning there were essentially no chances to get momentum offensively. The Rox solidified their spot in the top of the Great Plains West as they dropped the Huskies back down to 2nd place in the Great Plains East.
The team then went to Bismarck for a two-game set to face them for the last time this season. After dropping two games to St. Cloud, the Huskies’ offense came back to form and put up 13 runs on 15 hits to win 13-8. The score was tight at 6-5 after 5 innings and Bismarck actually took a one-run lead in the bottom of the 7th when they scored 3 runs off of Erik Kaiser. But then in the Huskies’ top half of the 8th, they exploded and put up six runs on five hits to take a five-run lead. Owen Meaney came onto the bump for the 8th and threw two scoreless innings, which was his 3rd straight appearance without giving up a run. Alex Tappen and Drew Downing led the offense with five hits and 5 RBI’s between them while five other Huskies had multi-hit games.
In Wednesday’s contest, the Huskies looked to sweep the Larks, but Bismarck’s early offense stifled Cole Milam as they knocked him out of the game after 2 innings after putting up 5 runs. Then Dan Jansen came into the game and Bismarck scored three more in the 3rd inning to give them an eight-run lead after three innings. That lead would prove to be insurmountable even after Duluth put up a 5-spot in the 6th on three consecutive RBI singles and an RBI double from Matt Hogan. Frank Diaz Jr. relieved Larks starter Zach Harlan in the 6th and threw 3.2 scoreless innings to keep Duluth’s bats quiet for the rest of the night. Bismarck put up three more off of Keaton Carattini in the 8th for good measure as they took game two by a final of 11-5.
Last night the Border Cats came into town again for a two-game set, and the Huskies pulled out a game one win 9-7. Colton Williams got his 2nd start as a Husky and gave up 4 runs over 4 innings. The top of the Huskies’ order was the driving force for Duluth’s offense, especially Alex Tappen who hit a grand slam in the 7th to re-take the lead 8-6 and logged 5 RBI’s on the night. The 1-3 holes for Duluth combined for 4 hits, 5 walks, and 5 RBI’s. Each team went on to score one more run as Jack Corbell earned a two-inning save for his work in the 8th and 9th innings in the win.
The Huskies go for the 2nd straight sweep of Thunder Bay tonight on Colon Cancer Awareness Night. 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.
