GAME 1 BOX SCORE – Huskies 4, Rochester 9 

GAME 2 BOX SCORE – Huskies 10, Rochester 3

The Duluth Huskies hit five home runs over the course of a doubleheader to earn a split with the Rochester Honkers Tuesday at Mayo Field. 

In a continuation of the delayed contest from Monday night, the Honkers (15-15, 27-39) took the first game, 9-4. The Huskies (18-13, 35-30) took the seven inning doubleheader finale, 10-3. 

The first game picked up where the two teams left off on Monday. Rochester led, 2-0, and had runners on first and second in the bottom of the second when the rest of the game got washed out. They continued the momentum they built up the day before, scoring in each of the game’s first five innings including two home runs, one from Dom Rodruguez and another from Dean Carpentier.

Huskies pitcher Devin Dodson, who the Huskies planned on using to start the game yesterday but pivoted to Matt Juza likely due to the impending weather, got battered around. He did, however, eat up valuable innings in the process, keeping the Huskies bullpen fresh. Regardless, the Huskies trailed, 7-1, through five. The only interruption to Rochester’s early onslaught was Joshua Duarte’s first home run of the summer, accounting for the only Huskies run. 

In the seventh, the Huskies, as they have done so often this summer, tried to fight back. Ethan Casas-Wu and Duarte each delivered run-scoring knocks to cut the deficit down to four. However, aided by the voices of hundreds of young fans, part of the 1,133 in attendance for the midweek matinee, the Honkers responded right back with two of their own after control issues got to Dodson in the inning. 

Jayden Duplantier drove him yet another run in the eighth for the Huskies, but it would be too little, too late. The Honkers took game one by a score of 9-4. 

The second game began just 30 minutes later and the Huskies offense wasted no time getting things going. They struck three times in the top of the first off of Honkers starter Connor Goodwin, and they used the long ball to do it. Cardell Thibodeaux led off the game for the Huskies with his sixth home run of the summer. Two batters later, Charlie Sutherland knocked a two-run shot out of the park to put the Huskies up, 3-0. 

Not to be deterred, Rochester responded right back, piecing together a couple of runs of their own in the bottom of the first. But, the Huskies didn’t blink and came back with a pair of their own in the second, prompting an early pitching change from the Honkers. Sutherland drew a walk with the bases loaded for his third RBI in just the second inning and then Ethan Cole hit a sacrifice fly to restore the three-run lead, 5-2. 

Following the early flurry, the pitchers settled into the game with striking efficiency. Huskies starter Anthony Barrera kept the Honkers off-balance following the first inning, allowing just one run the rest of the way. That run may have been an absolute moonshot off the bat of Petey Craska, however, with the three-run lead it was more than enough. He ended up going the distance, needing just 51 pitches to get through the last five innings after throwing 35 in the first two combined. The final line: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 7 K. 

On the other side, reliever Joey Craska of the Honkers did an admirable job in long relief, keeping the Huskies at bay for five innings out of the pen. Unlike the final score indicated, the result was very much in doubt for most of the game. However, in the seventh, the Huskies finally solved him and struck for five runs to bust the game wide open. Both Cole and Cal Elvis took him deep for two-run homers, sandwiching an Elijah Fairchild sacrifice fly, to turn a tight contest into a touchdown plus the extra point lead for the Huskies. 

With the added confidence with the big lead, Barrera was able to come back out for the seventh and work around a small jam to give the Huskies the win, 10-3, and out of Rochester with a split. 

Up Next 

The Huskies head home to wrap up the regular season with a four-game home stand against the two teams they just played on the road. Up first, the Waterloo Bucks come to town, hoping for some revenge after the Huskies swept them in Iowa. First pitch for Wednesday night is scheduled for 6:35 pm.