Jon Willis – Duluth Huskies Broadcaster
@Jon_Willis_
The Huskies offense continued to roll on Wednesday, as they scored 21 runs on 20 hits in two games with the Honkers.
Game 1 was delayed 2 hours due to some rain in the area, but the conditions did not stop the Huskies. The Huskies did get off to a slow start, but thanks to a great start from Austin Humphres and a quality 4 innings out of the bullpen from David Stich, the Huskies were within 2 in the 8th.
From there, they exploded for 8 runs in the top of the 8th. Jared Mettam tied the game in the 8th with a double to knock in two runs, and they ended up taking the lead on a bases loaded hit by pitch. From there, any run would just be a bonus, and up came Brylan West with the bases loaded and he drilled a ball over the left center wall for a grand slam to get the Huskies to 10 runs. That sucked the life out of the hometown Honkers, and the Huskies held on to win 10-5.
Humphres went 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks. Stich came in relief, and went 4 innings with 2 runs on 7 hits 1 strikeout, and 3 walks.
Game 2 started right on time, with the Huskies spacing out their runs more in this game, with 3 runs in the 2nd, 6th, and 8th. Duluth got up 5-1 early, but a grand slam from Petey Craska would tie the game.
Max Coupe single handily gave the Huskies the lead back though, knocking in two runs off a double in the 6th, and then stealing home when he got the pitcher sleeping, to put the Huskies back up.
Rochester added two in the bottom of the 6th, but then Duluth would put the game away with 3 runs in the 8th, two of them off the bat of Michael Hallquist on a double. From there, Isaac Rohde shut things down on the pitching side of things, and the Huskies won 11-7.
Jared Mettam ended up going 2-4 with a home run and 2 RBI’s, with 3 walks and 4 runs in game two.
With the win, the Huskies are now 23-19 overall, and 7-3 in the second half, winners of their last 6 games. They are 1.5 games back of first place, with Waterloo off to a 8-1 start in the second half. They have a huge series coming up with La Crosse Thursday and Friday, with La Crosse off to a 7-1 second half start. With so many teams in the battle for first, this could be a deciding series early in the 2nd half.
First pitches of both games are set for 6:35 PM CST, you can listen along on the Duluth Huskies YouTube channel.
