BOX SCORE GAME 1 – Express 5, Huskies 16

BOX SCORE GAME 2 – Express 3, Huskies 6

The Duluth Huskies swept a two-game doubleheader from the Eau Claire Express Monday at Wade Stadium to pull within a half game of the top of the division. 

Home runs powered the engine for the Huskies. They hit five long balls across the two games to flip the script on the Express, who entered the day having hit the third most in the entire league. 

In game one, it felt like Eau Claire might have been back to their winning ways against the Huskies early. They scored three times in the first two innings against Huskies starter Joshua Butler, who had not allowed a run in any of his appearances prior to today. However, he was able to limit the damage to just those three in his five innings of work. Then, the Huskies started to chip away at the lead. 

First, Reagan Reeder hit the first home run of the day for Duluth, a shot that just barely cleared the wall in right center to put the Huskies on the board. Then, in the third, the Huskies scratched another run across on a pair of singles, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice fly by Charlie Sutherland. In the fourth, Cardell Thibodeaux left the yard to tie the game at three. However, the sixth is where it all came tumbling down on the Express. 

Trailing, 4-3, entering the inning, the Huskies exited that sixth inning on top, 10-4. The bottom third of the order started it. Corbin Grantham was hit by a pitch and then Jayden Duplantier and Cal Elvis delivered back-to-back doubles to put the Huskies in front, 5-4. At the top of the order, two more hit batters put MJ Sweeney at the plate with the bases loaded. And on the first pitch, Sweeney didn’t miss it. 

The grand slam nailed the Culver’s sign out beyond the right field wall, and it broke the game open for the Huskies. It was part of an 11 RBI weekend for Sweeney, now tied for first atop the leaderboard in the league. Joe Vos belted his third homer of the season two batters later for good measure. In total, Duluth sent ten batters to the plate in the inning.

They would score three more runs in each of the following two innings to give them all the insurance they would ever need, winning by a score of 16-5. 

Cardell Thibodeaux scored five runs in the game, finishing 3-for-4. 

In game two, the Huskies were the ones to get on the board quickly, thanks to more hit batters by the Express. Against Eau Claire starter Daniel Reischl, the Huskies scored twice in the first despite not recording a hit in the inning to lead, 2-0. 

However, a big hit was not an issue in the third inning. The Huskies got two singles out of Cardel Dick and Charlie Sutherland and a walk to Ethan Cole in front of Reagan Reeder. Reeder delivered that big hit in a big way, drilling the second grand slam of the day for the Huskies and breaking the game open to the tune of a six run lead. The home run was also Reeder’s second of the day.

On the defensive side, Cale Haugen turned in another great start for Duluth. Despite allowing a baserunner in each of his six innings, he allowed just one run and struck out a season-high six batters. 

With a four run lead to protect in the ninth, the Golden Gopher and usual position player Charlie Sutherland came in to get the last three outs.  He would do just that, touching 90 on the radar gun in the process, allowing one run but sealing the win. 

The rest of the baseball side of the Northwoods League was off today, so the win pulled the Huskies within a half game of Thunder Bay for the top spot in the division. 

Duluth will head to Rochester next for a two-game set with the Honkers starting Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm at Mayo Field.