BOX SCORE – Huskies 6, Loggers 12

The Duluth Huskies allowed 11 runs in the first five innings and could not overcome that mountain in a defeat, 12-6, at the hands of the La Crosse Loggers Sunday night at Copeland Park. 

After sporting much improved pitching all second half, the Huskies (0-1) could not post a zero in any of the first five innings and created an insurmountable deficit that the Loggers (1-0) held onto in the late innings. As a result, Duluth trails the first round best-of-three series, 1-0, and must win two in a row to move on in the Northwoods League postseason. 

Things went wrong almost immediately Sunday night. Huskies starter Anthony Barrera nailed the first hitter he saw, walked the second then the fourth, Tyler Smith, hit a three-run home run to put the Loggers on top, 3-0. In the second, Case Sanderson made it 4-0 with a home run as well, part of a three home barrage put up by the Loggers. 

It felt like the Huskies might be mounting a comeback in the third as two batters in, they had runners on second and third and nobody out. However, some poor baserunning decisions kept a crooked number off the board. Cardell Thibodeaux ripped a single into right on the next batter to score the Huskies first run of the game, but a poor decision by either third base coach Jake Pashby or Cal Elvis ran him into an out at the plate, erasing him. Then, Thibodeaux, who took second on the throw, was caught trying to steal third. All of a sudden, what could have been runners on the corners with nobody out with one run across became nobody on and two outs. To make matters worse, that’s all the offense the Huskies could muster until the seventh inning. 

Unfortunately, the Loggers were not done adding on. They made the Huskies pay for leaving those runs on the table almost instantly, scoring three more times in the bottom half of the third. That knocked Barrera out of the game after just three innings, easily his worst start of the summer for the Huskies at the worst possible time. His final line: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 1 K. 

Matt Juza came on in long relief for the Huskies, and he didn’t fare much better. In his first inning, the Loggers got to him three times also, sending eight batters to the plate. They also got one more in the bottom of the fifth. Through five innings of play, the Huskies trailed, 11-1. 

The Huskies tried to make things interesting, piecing together a small rally in the late innings. Jake Downing, a bright spot for the Huskies, knocked home two with an RBI triple in the seventh. It was part of a 2-for-4 day for the just recently graduated senior in high school. Both of his hits were extra base hits. 

In the eighth, the Huskies scored three times. The first two batters of the inning reached, then advanced on a wild pitch. Charlie Sutherland drove home one with a productive groundout. Reagan Reeder then drilled an RBI double to score another. Two batters later, the bases were loaded for Elijah Fairchild, who drove in another with a groundout, cutting the lead down to 11-6. Unfortunately for the Huskies, that’s where the rally ended as Downing struck out to strand two in scoring position. 

The momentum the Huskies gained from two productive innings in a row was quickly squashed by Ian Collier. He hit the third Logger home run of the game to bring the lead back out to six. The Huskies went relatively quietly in the ninth to close out the game and give La Crosse the win, 12-6. 

Up Next 

The Huskies return home to Wade Stadium for Game 2 of the series and will need a victory in order to face a decisive Game 3. First pitch for the must-win game is at 6:35 pm CST. Again, that game will be available to watch only on ESPN+.