DULUTH, Minn. – The Duluth Huskies got back on track Saturday against the Rochester Honkers, winning 4-1. 

After a long streak of high-scoring wins over the last week, the Huskies showed that they can also win a close pitcher’s duel. It all started with Kerry Herndon-Brown making his Husky debut on the mound. In his first game action in over a year due to injury, Herndon-Brown shut down the Honkers over two innings, ending both frames with strikeouts. 

The Huskies, meanwhile, got on the board quickly with a first inning run. Tommy Farmer led the inning off with a walk, and quickly flashed his speed with his first stolen base of the season. That allowed Bjorn Lind to move him to third with a groundout, and Michael Smith to then score him with a groundout of his own. Despite no hits, the Huskies led 1-0.

The next four innings were dominated by pitching. On the Duluth side, James Rheaume came in and pitched remarkably. In his longest outing of the season by a large margin, Rheaume allowed just one hit in his 4.2 relief innings. For Rochester, Air Force Academy’s Ethan Dillinger held the Huskies to just one hit by Elijah Fairchild through his first five innings. The score remained 1-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth. 

That’s when the Huskies’ bats began to wake up. Lind and Smith got the job done again to open the inning, singling and doubling respectively, for two runners on. Two batters later, Ethan Surowiec delivered a base hit to bring home a run and double the Duluth lead. 

The seventh was when Rheaume finally started to get into trouble, loading the bases with two outs. Manager Marcus Pointer went to Chas Melvin out of the bullpen, who walked the first batter he saw on four straight pitches to allow a run, but then buckled down and got out of the inning. The Huskies were clinging to a 2-1 advantage at the seventh inning stretch. 

Fairchild began that inning with the Huskies’ second ground-rule double in as many innings, putting himself in position to score on the Zan Von Schlegell RBI single that followed. The duo of Lind and Smith would then come through once more. Lind singled to move Von Schlegell over an extra 90 feet, where he would then score on a Michael Smith base knock. The Huskies left the seventh winning 4-1. 

The rest of the ballgame belonged solely to Chas Melvin. The Minnesota State righty allowed no hits during his outing, closing out the game for his first save of the summer. The Huskies pitching staff held Rochester to just two singles during the entire contest in their three-run victory. 

On Deck

Duluth will look for their fourth win of the season against the Honkers on Sunday afternoon, trying to kick start another winning streak before their long road trip to North Dakota. First pitch is slated for 3:05 p.m. and Danny Hesse is slated for the start. 

Box Score