Division chase still alive for Duluth
Duluth, Minn — The Huskies got back on track with a win on Sunday after dropping back to back games to Thunder Bay and Waterloo the last two days and looked to stack a few wins together with a double-header against the Bucks on Monday.
Game One
Game one seemed to be going Waterloo’s way early on as Jared Milch, who’d given up four runs on the season prior to his start today, had a rough time against the Bucks early on. But that didn’t matter much as he recovered nicely to throw an even 100 pitches over 5 innings while a bevy of Huskies runs backed him up in the 10-7 win. Both teams featured their offenses as there were 26 combined hits, 17 runs, 12 walks, and only 11 strikeouts.
Jack Corbell went 4 innings in relief of Jared Milch in his longest outing of the season and gave up just one run on a sac fly while striking out a pair. Duluth’s first four batters each had two-hit games as Channy Ortiz also logged a couple of base hits as the 9-hole hitter.
After the top of the Huskies’ order went down in order in the top of the 1st, Milch rolled through the Bucks’ first two hitters and got two strikes on Bucks’ DH Patrick Ferguson, who promptly hit a two-out solo shot for his 8th of the season that gave Waterloo an early one-run lead.
Milch ran into trouble again in the 2nd after allowing the first two batters to reach base which led to consecutive run-scoring singles for Waterloo’s 2nd and 3rd runs. Then back to back doubles from the top of Waterloo’s order scored three more runs, bringing their total to 6 after 2 complete innings.
But then the Huskies exploded for 6 runs starting with four straight hits that scored two. Then a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Niko Lima and a wild pitch scored the 3rd and 4th runs for Duluth with just one out. Jack Corkery would be chased from the game thereafter as his 7.44 season ERA came to fruition in the 3rd inning. After striking out Collin Hopkins, Channy Ortiz flared a base hit into left field that scored a pair to knot things up a 6 before the inning ended.
The scoring continued in the 4th for Duluth when the Huskies took advantage of back to back hit by pitches. With two outs a Lima groundball got through the infield and stalled in the outfield grass for two more runs, giving Duluth their first lead at 8-6. Once again in the 5th, a run was scored when an error on a double steal allowed Lance Ford to score the 9th run.
2019 All-Star Jimmy Smiley came in to throw for Waterloo in the 6th to silence Duluth’s bats and did so for the next two innings as the score remained locked at 9-6 until the bottom of the 7th when Mike Nyisztor was brought home by Bennett Hostettler on a sac fly for the Bucks’ 7th run and their first since the 2nd inning. Nyisztor was Waterloo’s best batter as he went 3-4 with 2 runs scored and a walk in 5 plate appearances.
Duluth followed them up with a two-out triple from Aaron Greenfield in the top half of the 9th for their 10th run that would be the final run scored. Jack Corbell finished off the Bucks in the bottom of the 9th as the final was 10-7 Huskies.
Game Two
Game two was a mirror image of game one as pitching was at the forefront early on. In fact, neither team could find the scoreboard for the first three innings as opposed to game one which saw 12 men cross home through three. Keaton Carattini got his first start as a Husky and ended up tossing 4 innings, giving up one run on three hits and walking 4. Ultimately, the Huskies won by a final of 6-2.
The Huskies broke through in the 4th for the first three runs of the game on doubles from Matt Hogan and Channy Ortiz that were separated by a Justin Moore flyout. After a slow start, Ortiz has picked it up the last few days as he has put up 4 multi-hit games in the last week. Lance Ford then knocked in the 4th run with his first since the finale against Thunder Bay on Friday and first RBI since July 20th.
The Bucks cut Duluth’s lead to 3 right after with a two-out RBI single from Ethan Copeland, but Carattini had Waterloo’s hitters stymied more often than not as he racked up 8 punchouts through the first four frames.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 6th inning when Waterloo scored their 2nd run on a Dylan Phillips groundout off of Erik Kaiser, who came onto the mound at the start of the inning. Danny Zimmerman got that run back though in the 8th with his 2nd double of the game that scored Aaron Greenfield from 2nd. Zimmerman eventually came around to score on a wild pitch as well to make it a 4-run game.
No more runs would be scored as the Huskies would win both games of Monday’s doubleheader.
The Huskies are back at The Wade tomorrow for a crucial four-game homestand against the Loggers and the Express. 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.
