BOX SCORE – Wausau 9, Huskies 2
The Duluth Huskies collected just four hits and the staff couldn’t hold down the potent Wausau Woodchucks offense in a defeat, 9-2, at Wade Stadium Friday night.
The Huskies (9-8) played two fine games in the series versus the league-leading Woodchucks (17-3), but came up empty in the win column.
Today, the Huskies escaped the first two innings quickly, with Huskies starting pitcher Jackson Smith striking out the first four batters in the game. However, things got hairy in the third. Following a game in which the Huskies didn’t have an error or issue a walk, the third began with both respectively. After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners over, the Woodchucks’ Daniel Harden delivered an RBI single to score both runs to get the scoring started.
The Woodchucks added one more in the sixth to take a 3-0 lead before the Huskies scored their first run. The inning started with three free passes: Jayden Duplantier was hit by a pitch and MJ Sweeney and Charlie Sutherland each worked lengthy at-bats into walks. After Reagan Reeder struck out, Ethan Cole hit a deep fly ball to center field that drove in the run, run down in center by Harden. However, that’s all the Huskies could get from bases loaded and no outs, a big missed opportunity for Duluth. Turns out they would regret it big time.
Wausau scored one more in the seventh before erupting in the ninth to the tune of five runs, batting around to put the game out of reach.
Duluth scored once more in the ninth to make the final score, 9-2.
The good news for the Huskies is that the team on the other team of the spectrum, the league-worst Rochester Honkers, defeated Thunder Bay for their third win of the season. That means the Huskies remain 2.5 games back in the Great Plains East.
Another important series looms for the Huskies with four games in the next three days coming up against the Eau Claire Express, who are hovering right around the Huskies in the division. Game one tomorrow is in Eau Claire and will begin at 6:35 pm CST. Following that, the series shifts to the Wade for a Sunday night contest before a Monday scheduled day-night doubleheader.