Kyle Morrison

The Huskies took the field for a Saturday matinee against the La Crosse Loggers, looking to split their series with their Great Plains East rival.

On the mound for the Huskies was Devin Dodson, who came in with a solid 3.48 ERA in six appearances. Matthew Linskey came in with similar credentials sporting a 3.60 ERA in four appearances.

Like the night before, La Crosse got the scoring started early with an RBI single from Josh Stevenson that drove in Aidan Sweat, who led off the game with a triple. Stevenson would also come around to score later in the inning to make it 2-0 heading to the bottom of the First.

The Huskies struck back quickly in the bottom of the first when Kristian Campbell drilled an opposite-field double to knock in Jonathan Vastine and make the score 2-1.

The two teams took a scoring reprieve as both starters settled in. In the bottom of the fourth, Hudson Sapp ended the drought with an RBI single to tie the game at 2. Sapp’s swing of the bat invigorated the Huskies’ bats as Jared Mettam, the next hitter, drilled an RBI single off the left-field wall to give Duluth the lead. It was 3-2.

La Crosse pulled Matthew Linskey after the 4th inning. He gave up three earned runs before yielding pitching duties to reliever Jaden Bruno to start the 5th.

Bruno yielded a run in his first inning of work when Huskies’ RBI leader Eddy Rosario came up with a clutch RBI ground out to knock in JD Rogers. The Huskies were up 4-2.

Devin Dodson was stellar in his start for the Huskies. He went seven strong innings, only allowing two runs and putting his team in a prime position to win the game with a 4-2 lead.

As soon as Dodson left the game, the Huskies got to work on building insurance and assuring him his fourth win of the season. The Huskies put runners at First and Third to start their half of the seventh, then Loggers’ reliever Ricky Reeth fired a wild pitch that plated Jonathan Vastine and made the score 5-2.

Dylan Hill came into the game in the eighth and pitched himself out of a runners-on first and second jam, instigating an excellent 1-6-3 double play to get out of the inning and keeping the score 5-2.

The Huskies turned to their closer Jake Christensen to close the game out, and he did just that. 1-2-3 and with a strikeout for out number 27 to put an exclamation point on a Saturday afternoon win.

The Huskies with the win are now 21-16 overall and 2-2 in the second half; the Loggers fall to 18-20 and are now 2-2 in the second half.

The Huskies will be back at the Wade tomorrow for a matchup with the Great Plains West first-half champions St Cloud Rox. First pitch is at 3:05.