BOX SCORE – Game 1 – La Crosse 13, Huskies 12 (10 INN) 

BOX SCORE – Game 2 – La Crosse 4, Huskies 3 (7 INN)

The Duluth Huskies were swept in back-to-back games Tuesday night by the La Crosse Loggers at Wade Stadium in Duluth. 

With a chance to leave at the end of the night tied at the top of the Great Plains East Division, the two-game swing instead went the other way. The Huskies (14-13) now sit four games back of the Loggers (18-9) with the first half quickly winding down. 

Both games were one-run affairs and played in extremely different ways. 

The first contest was an absolute barnburner, with a combined 25 runs scored between the two teams in a game that needed extras to decide a winner. With more momentum swings than a rollercoaster, the announced crowd of 1,257 were treated to a dandy. 

La Crosse led 2-0 after the first two innings of play in game one. However, the Huskies exploded for six runs in the bottom of the third. The inning saw 12 Huskies bat, with the biggest hit being an opposite field rope of a home run off the bat of MJ Sweeney. A single, three walks and a hit batter later, and the Huskies would lead, 6-2. The lead didn’t even last a half inning. 

The Loggers responded in the top half of the fourth with a four-run inning of their own, tying the game at six. Yet again, that score would last just a half inning. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Reagan Reeder crushed what could have been the signature hit in the game: a three-run home run off the batter’s eye in center. That gave Duluth a 9-6 lead. They would add to it in the fifth after Sweeney picked up his fourth RBI of the game. But, the Loggers, not to be deterred, would not let the game go so easily. 

One run in the seventh made it 10-7. Then, it was a four-run eighth that gave La Crosse the lead back. A string of four straight base hits with two runners on base and La Crosse had come all the way back to lead, 11-10. 

The game had one last seesaw act, however. A triple and a sac fly in the bottom of the ninth tied it for the Huskies. The difference in extras? The Loggers plated the free run, plus one, and the Huskies could not. That gave the Loggers a victory, 13-12 in 10. 

On the other hand, game two turned into a big pitchers duel . . . after the first inning. Nik Copenhaver started and struggled again for the Loggers against the Huskies, surrendering two runs in the first. Sweeney had an RBI single and Boots Landry delivered a sacrifice fly to give the home team a 2-0 lead in a game it felt like they needed to have. 

La Crosse responded with one of their own in the second off of Duluth starter Anthony Andrews. 

After the first, the Loggers lifted Copenhaver for Iowa’s Justin Hackett. He was excellent through his four innings, allowing just two baserunners in a shutout effort. The good news for Duluth is that Anthony Andrews also was fantastic. The bad news is that their defense was not. 

Throughout the day, the Huskies committed seven errors. Three of them came in game two and led to all three of the runs La Crosse scored before the seventh. Andrews finished his outing making it through 20 of the 21 outs, allowing just five hits, four runs with just one being earned and striking out a Huskies season-high of 10 batters. Be that as it may, the Huskies still trailed, 4-2, entering the bottom of the seventh, their last chance in the game. 

They took advantage of it at first. The bottom of the order in Cal Elvis and Jayden Duplantier, who collected five hits throughout the two games, both reached. So did Cardell Thibodeaux at the top, and all of a sudden, the bases were loaded with nobody out. 

Ethan Cole got the Huskies within one with a sharp single to center. Everybody else could only move up 90 feet. With the heart of the order coming up, surely the Huskies would at least tie the game, right? Wrong. 

Loggers closer Maddex Peck was unflappable after that. He struck out Max Coupe, Sweeney and Joe Vos all in a row to stun the Huskies and make it eight straight for the Loggers. 

On a positive note for Duluth, MJ Sweeney now sits at 29 RBIs on the season for the Huskies, tied for third in the league. Jayden Duplantier was fantastic, going 4-for-6 in the opening game. Cardell Thibodeaux drew a ridiculous four walks in game one. 

But despite all that, and a lot more, the day proved damaging for the Huskies in the grand scheme of things. The climb to the top of the Great Plains East just got a whole lot steeper. 

The Huskies will have one more shot against the Loggers Wednesday night to try to pull back within three games. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm.