BOX SCORE – Huskies 6, Eau Claire 8

Cal Elvis and Jayden Duplantier both homered but the Duluth Huskies fell short in the first game of a six-game road trip, 8-6, against the Eau Claire Express Thursday night at Carson Park. 

The Huskies (15-11, 32-28) scored in three of the game’s first four innings but it wasn’t enough against the Express (14-12, 29-32). With the win, the Express pulled within a game of the Huskies atop the Great Plains East division. 

The Huskies offense had it going early on and showed off some early power. Elvis and Duplantier both went deep in the second and fourth innings respectively. For Duplantier, it’s his first of the summer. He became the 13th different Huskie to hit a home run this summer. In between that, a RBI double from Joshua Duarte and a two-RBI single from Max Coupe made five Huskies runs through four innings. 

However, they surrendered four on the other side, allowing a pair of runs in both the first and third innings. The Huskies led, 5-4, through four. 

The sixth is where things went bad for the Huskies. Reliever Jakob Schulz, who had allowed just one run in his prior 12 innings, came in for starter Anthony Barrera and had a tough outing. He walked three, allowed three hits and most importantly, surrendered four runs in the inning. The Huskies trailed, 8-5. 

Cardell Thibodeaux scored one more on a sacrifice fly in the seventh to cut the deficit to two. However, despite threatening in the eighth, Duluth did not score again. 

Up Next 

Nine games remain for the Huskies in the season. Duluth continues the six-game road trip Friday night for the final game of the season against the Express. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm.