Kristian Campbell’s season-high four RBI breaks La Crosse’s seven-game home winning streak
Duluth, Minn. – Returning player Ambren Voitik said before game two at La Crosse that the Huskies needed to keep their heads held high, despite a rough eight-game road trip.
On Wednesday night, the Huskies gave themselves nine reasons to keep their chins up.
The Duluth Huskies rolled the La Crosse Loggers in game two to earn a series split, taking home a 9-1 victory over the second-placed Loggers. It was the first home loss suffered at Copeland Park since June 4th.
La Crosse started right-hander Will Watson for his fourth appearance of the season. The West Virginia University product struggled in his first three starts, receiving one loss and holding an ERA over seven. The Huskies got to him early, with Kristian Campbell lacing his 17th RBI of the season on an RBI double to score Jonathan Vastine to make it 1-0 Duluth.
Campbell, now with an RBI in five of his last eight road games, is now tied for the team lead. He would trot home six pitches later on an RBI groundout by Eduardo Rosario to double the Duluth (12-11) advantage heading into the middle of the first.
The Huskies didn’t let up quickly. JD Rogers and Jared Mettam drew a pair of walks to lead off the second, and Rogers was able to score on a wild pitch to give Duluth a 3-0 lead.
Before the inning was over, the Huskies were able to tack on two more. Ambren Voitik and Jonathan Vastine each knocked in runs to give the Huskies a 5-0 lead through an inning and a half at Copeland Park.
After hitting his pitch count limit at Eau Claire, right-hander Harrison Kreiling earned his second start of the road trip for Duluth. The Omaha product struck out four batters his first time through the order, cruising through three shutout innings.
Duluth refused to let up after La Crosse (13-11) put up 15 the night before. Campbell moved to a season-high four RBI with a three-run nuke to right center field off of reliever Mickey Thompson to give the Huskies an 8-0 lead. Campbell reached all five times he came to the plate, taking over first place in runs batted in – 20 – for Duluth this season.
Harrison Kreiling was almost flawless, but the Loggers were able to get on the board in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI base knock by Brennan Holt to make it 8-1 Huskies. Isaac Cychosz closed up the frame for Kreiling, who finished throwing five and two-thirds on 102 pitches, recording six strikeouts against La Crosse.
Jared Mettam was able to plate one more for the Huskies in the seventh. The rising Freshman at St. Mary’s drilled an RBI single past third baseman to score Bobby Blandford, extending the lead to 9-1.
Harrison Kreiling earned his third win of the season in four starts for Duluth, Will Watson was handed his second loss of the season for La Crosse.
With their eight-game road trip in the rearview mirror, the Huskies return to Wade Stadium for a six-game home stand ranging until the end of the month. The home stand starts tomorrow against the Waterloo Bucks, first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 P.M.
