Huskies on the brink of playoff elimination
Duluth, Minn — The Huskies came into last Friday’s game in Thunder Bay in first place with a three-game lead over the Eau Claire Express. But news dropped that afternoon that the Huskies made an illegal transaction and were docked five wins, knocking them down to 3rd place with 8 games remaining. They’d go on to struggle, losing three of their next four and continuing to drop in the standings.
Last week the Border Cats swept Duluth for the first time this season, which dropped the Huskies even further down the rankings, giving them quite a mountain to climb. Game one of the series looked to be going the Huskies’ way with them being in front 2-1 heading into the 8th inning. But Jakob Newton scored on a Jordan Larson single in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game, and Ryne Edmondson doubled home Anthony Galati in the bottom of the 10th to walk it off 3-2.
Ryne Edmondson stayed hot in game two as he ended up going 3-6 with 3 RBI’s in the two-game series. He and the rest of the top of Thunder Bay’s order led them to a 4-2 win in game two to sweep the series. Travis Booth pitched six brilliant innings and struck out 13 Border Cats but did allow two runs, which was enough for them to tie the game. Beau Wills was his replacement and allowed two runs in his two innings of work which gave them the lead. The Huskies outhit Thunder Bay 10 to 5, but hits were scattered for Duluth, making it hard to string hits together and score runs.
Monday’s contest against La Crosse, the beginning of perhaps the most important series of Duluth’s season, was rained out and re-scheduled on Thursday night as a doubleheader with each game being played in 7 innings. The Huskies again looked to be on their way to a win with a 4-2 lead over the Loggers heading into the bottom of the 7th. Jack Corbell came onto the mound to try and get the save, but Kyson Donahue scored a run with an RBI single and then two batters later, Ryan Holgate blasted a three-run walk-off home run over the right field wall to win it 6-4. Danny Zimmerman hit a two-run shot in the top of the 5th that gave Duluth a 4-0 lead initially.
Game two was a little different as Duluth took the lead again, but they did not give it up this time and absolutely dominated at the plate to win 7-0. Four different Huskies hit solo homeruns throughout the game as Max Guzman, Nico Lima, and Alex Tappen led the team at the plate. Not to mention Ricky Reynoso who pitched a complete game shut-out, struck out 7 Loggers, and allowed only four hits.
Yesterday the last regular season homestand at Wade Stadium took place against the Waterloo Bucks and two 5th inning runs from Patrick Ferguson and Bennett Hostetler was all Waterloo needed as they took the game by a final of 4-2. The interesting part was that they logged just two hits the whole game, but took advantage of Schuyler Hill’s 5 issued walks and Brock Mosier’s control issues to get in just enough of a rhythm.
With Eau Claire also losing last night, the scenario for Duluth to make the playoffs is simple; Win the remaining three games, hope Eau Claire loses their remaining three games, and hope La Crosse loses two of their three remaining games.
The Huskies look to stay alive tonight against Waterloo in the last regular season home game. 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.
