Jon Willis – Huskies Broadcaster
@Jon_Willis_
After losing two straight on the road to Eau Claire, the Duluth Huskies headed south to Iowa to take on the Waterloo Bucks. The Huskies would win both, in completely different ways, relying on pitching to win game 1, and survived a shootout in game 2.
On Game 1 Saturday, it was a strong start from DJ Burke along with timely runs in the middle innings that helped the Huskies. The Bucks would strike first in the bottom of the first with a run scored from Blake Burris, but that would be the only run Burke would give up all night.
It took the Huskies a bit to get going, but Brandon Compton launched his 3rd home run of the season to tie the game at 1 in the 4th. Hasani Johnson would then break the tie in the 5th with his double that knocked in two runs.
Burke would go 6 full innings for the Huskies, allowing only 1 run on 1 hit with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks. Both the Huskies and the Bucks would score a run a piece in the 7th, with Austin Humphres coming in during the 8th and shutting things down, striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced, giving the Huskies the 4-2 win. Duluth as a pitching staff, only allowed 2 total hits throughout the game.
Game 2 was the complete opposite on a Sunday afternoon. The teams combined for 20 total runs, and 30 total hits, in what would prove to be an offensive explosion.
The Huskies jumped ahead early, going up 6-0 after the top of the 3rd inning. Brylan West knocked in a RBI on a single in the 1st, and knocked in two more runners in the 2nd with a double. Tyler Leroy would then come up in the third and destroy a ball over the left field wall for his first home run of the season, scoring 3 runs to put the Huskies up 6-0.
After a quality first two innings for Alex Potter on the mound, he would be taken out after the second. From there, the Bucks would answer with 9 unanswered runs. They scored 2 in the bottom of the 3rd, and then sent 12 batters to the plate to score 7 runs in the 5th inning. Waterloo was suddenly up 9-6 headed into the 6th.
The Huskies would again rally in the late innings though. After a couple straight scoreless innings where the Huskies left 4 runners on base in the 6th and 7th, they would score 4 runs in the 8th. Leroy would once again come up to the plate with 2 runners on, and for the second time on the day, sent a ball over the left field wall to tie the game at 9. Raymond Velazquez doubled after him, and Joshua Duarte who had a hot bat in game 2, would send him home on a RBI single to give the Huskies a 10-9 lead in the 8th.
Eli Sundquist gave the Huskies a 1.1 inning save for his 5th of the year including having the go ahead run on base in the bottom of the 8th and up to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning, and the Huskies added an insurance run in the top of the inning to hold on and win 11-9.
The Huskies improved to 10-8 and are right in the mix for first place in the division. The begin their final road series of the 6 game road trip tomorrow against the La Crosse Loggers, with first pitch set for 6:35 PM CST.
