BOX SCORE – Waterloo 4, Huskies 5 (11)
The Duluth Huskies snapped a five-game losing streak in walk off fashion Friday night, defeating the Waterloo Bucks, 5-4, in 11 innings at Wade Stadium.
The win salvaged a split for the Huskies (15-15) and brought the group back to .500. As for Bucks (17-13), the loss is extremely damaging to their hopes of catching the division-leading La Crosse Loggers.
The game couldn’t have started much better for the Huskies. They got to Bucks starting pitcher Braden Gluth to the tune of two runs in both the second and the third innings. Max Coupe knocked in three of the four runs with a single and a double. The Huskies led, 4-0, after the first three innings.
For Duluth, starting pitcher Joshua Butler was dealing through five innings. Things got a little dicey in the sixth, and after five shutout frames, Butler was lifted. That sixth would see three Bucks score, all charged to Butler, but the inning ended after that with the Huskies in front, 4-3.
In the next inning, the Bucks would tie it off of Matthew Foley. Ben Wilmes, the Northwoods League’s leader in batting average, delivered a RBI triple and the Bucks erased the four run deficit on four unanswered runs.
Following the sixth, it was a battle of the bullpens. Duluth’s Albert Roblez and Waterloo’s Kevin Jaxel each came in and dominated the opposing lineup. Roblez, in particular, got huge outs for Duluth. He came in with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, and got out of it. He also was fantastic in extras; the bonus runner never scored for Waterloo in their two tries. The highlight was striking out the side in the 11th to give the Huskies the opportunity to win it, punctuating his four shutout innings with his fourth, fifth and sixth strikeouts. And in the bottom of the 11th, Max Coupe delivered.
On the first pitch from the pitcher the Bucks put in for Jaxel, Chaney Trout, Coupe ripped it into left and Joe Vos scored from second to give the Huskies the walk off victory.
Coupe finished the day 3-for-5 with four RBI to lead the Huskies offense in his fifth game since re-signing with the team for the summer.
Up next, the Huskies hit the road for a quick two games before finishing off the first half at home. They’ll make the return trip to Wausau for a pair of games, looking to get their first win against the Woodchucks this year. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 pm CST on Saturday.
