Gamble, Bowman on fire at the plate in game one
Duluth, Minn — After officially being eliminated from Northwoods League Playoff Contention last night with Eau Claire’s 6-3 win over Bismarck, the Huskies traveled to Willmar to start their last season series looking to finish things off on a high note. Duluth defeated Waterloo last night in a thrilling 4-3 victory to try and stay in the division race off of excellent pitching from Keaton Caratti, who struck out 10 over 6 innings. The game was tied 2-2 until Joey Zwak had the hit of the game when he doubled in two runs to give Duluth the late lead.
Travis Booth came into his 3rd start tonight looking to replicate his last start against Thunder Bay in which he tossed six innings, gave up only two runs and struck out 13. The California Baptist product looked to retain his 1.80 ERA against Christopher Peres of the Stingers.
Willmar was the team to break through first in their half of the 2nd inning on an RBI single from Daniel Walsh that scored Justin King. King led off the inning with a stand-up double.
The next batter James Gamble hit the Stingers’ 2nd straight RBI single to give Willmar an early two-run lead with Peres pitching lights out over his first few innings on the mound.
The Stingers found the scoreboard once again in the 4th after Booth issued four walks over the span of six batters. The last walk was issued to Brandon Boissiere with the bases loaded which brought home Daniel Walsh to score Willmar’s 3rd run of the night.
Peres took a no-hitter into the top of the 5th but Nico Lima was the one to break it up with a one-out base hit. He was just the Huskies’ 2nd baserunner of the night since Alex Tappen’s walk earlier in the game. Lima continues to stay hot at the plate as he’s logged 8 hits in his last 13 at-bats to go along with a home run and three RBI’s.
Shortly after, Lima got into scoring position on a passed ball and was batted home by Collin Hopkins with a two-out knock on a 2-2 count for the Huskies’ first run. Booth would not return for the bottom of the 6th as Beau Wills came on to make his 4th appearance. Booth tossed five frames and struggled with his command as he walked six Stingers for three runs. He did continue to rack up strikeouts though with 8 to his name.
After Joel Cheatwood relieved Christopher Peres in the top of the 7th and worked a clean 1-2-3 inning on Duluth, Luke Bowman became the 6th Stinger to record a hit and the 4th to log an RBI on a two-RBI single to make it 5-1 Willmar. Sam Baier and Ryan Johnson kept the inning going with a single and a walk, respectively, to load the bases once again.
Two more Stinger runs scored when Boissiere reached on an error by Max Guzman at 1st, but Baier was thrown out trying to score a 3rd run to end the inning as Willmar claimed a six-run lead with two innings left to play.
Dennis Boatman came in to work the bottom of the 8th in his 9th appearance this summer, and after giving up a walk and a single to start the inning he struck out Riley Johnson and Daniel Walsh quickly for two outs. But it didn’t matter much as James Gamble got his 2nd hit of the night when he tripled home two runs to put Willmar up 9-1.
Garrett Herring made easy work of Duluth in the top of the 9th to secure a win for Willmar in game one of the series.
The Huskies look to end the 2019 season with a win tomorrow. First pitch is set for 5:05 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The Fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 4:55 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.
