DULUTH, Minn. – The Duluth Huskies (24-33, 8-14) beat the Rochester Honkers (30-27, 11-12) in both halves of the Sunday doubleheader. The Huskies won game one on the back of stellar pitching, with Owen Marsolek tossing a complete game shutout for seven innings in a 9-0 win. Game two was interesting for five-and-a-half innings, with a score of 5-3 entering the bottom of the sixth before Duluth plated nine in the last of the sixth to turn it into a laugher, 14-3.
Game One
Owen Marsolek made his third start for Duluth in 2026 and he was dynamite. Marsolek shut out Rochester for seven innings, delivering a sparkling outing with five singles, two walks and six strikeouts sprinkled throughout 101 pitches on the day. Marsolek came into the game with one earned run allowed in 10 innings of work, and exited with an ERA of 0.53 through three starts.
Marsolek allowed runners on the corners with one out in both the first and fifth innings, but escaped both jams with ease. Rochester is one of the premier offenses in the entire Northwoods, coming into the day 6th in runs scored and 1st in slugging percentage, but Marsolek didn’t allow an extra base hit all game. It was the first time this season the Honkers have been shut out.
Offensively, Duluth got started with two runs in the first. Maddox Monsour walked to lead things off, Wyatt Pennington singled behind him, and Anthony Cepeda and Jalen Smith drove them in with productive outs. That was all the run support Marsolek needed, but he got plenty more.
In the fourth, the Huskies put the first three runners aboard, with each of Benji Kautto, Dax Hardcastle and Andrew Ermis reaching. Hardcastle’s single scored Kautto, and the left fielder plus Duluth’s catcher Ermis both crossed the plate on wild pitches. The Dawgs then added four more insurance runs in the fifth. The first four all reached in the last of the fifth, and Pennington’s two-run single put a cap on a second shutout win for Duluth in three days.
Game Two
The first four innings of the latter half of the twin bill looked a lot like game one. Mason Pound got the start for Duluth and tossed four scoreless, sprinkling five hits throughout but keeping Rochester out of the runs column on the scoreboard. The Huskies scored in the first once more, with a Pennington double leading to a Kautto RBI groundout. The home siders added three more in the third, when Chance Sobbry, Isaiah Ibarra and Pennington reached consecutively to start the inning, followed by Kautto and Cepeda RBI outs and a Waylon Walsh run-scoring single.
The complexion of the game changed in the fifth however. Rochester crossed the plate for the first time on the day, loading the bases with one out before a Cooper Kruk bases-clearing double chased Pound from the game and made the score 4-3 Duluth. Devin Costa relieved the Huskies’ starter and kept the lead, allowing an infield hit but striking out Nick Bowron to end the top of the fifth.
In the last of the frame, Pennington notched his third hit of the game and fifth of the day, scoring on a Cepeda sacrifice fly. Costa left runners at second and third in the sixth, to keep a newfound two run lead into Duluth’s last chance for insurance.
The Huskies made no mistakes with it, adding insurance and then some. Duluth sent thirteen men to the plate, racking up eight hits and scoring nine runs. At one point, seven straight Huskies reached with two outs, six of them recording hits and three notching doubles. Brayden Smith had two hits in the inning, Sobbry and Ibarra both added a hit and a walk to reach twice, and Cepeda and George McIntyre both had two-run doubles in the inning.
In a strange turn of events, Pennington made two of the three outs in the sixth inning after reaching in his first seven plate appearances of the day. In fact, Pennington struck out to end the frame against position played Jacob Neutz, who came in from second base to finish the inning. Neutz faced Pennington first and struck him out. Pennington was the only Duluth hitter to strike out in the entire game, after Ezekiel Mendoza and Vaughn Johnson — Rochester’s two actual pitchers in the game — combined for no punchouts.
On the day, the Huskies scored 23 runs and had a number of stand out performances. Pennington was most impressive, going 5-for-7 with four runs, two RBI and two walks drawn. Cepeda went just 2-for-6, a below average day for the .359 hitter, but extended his hitting streak to seven games and drove in five runs to lead all Huskies on the day. Walsh had three hits in game two after appearing as a sub in game one, notching a pair of RBI. Sobbry reached in all four plate appearances in game two, going 1-for-1 with an RBI double and three runs after catching a breather in the opener.
Duluth pitching was also stellar, only needing to use three arms and combining for 14 innings of three run ball, walking five and striking out 15. Rochester, the all-time NWL record holder in single-season home runs already with 83 (and still 13 games to add on), had none on the day and just three doubles, all in game two. Kruk had two of them, finishing the day 3-for-7 with three RBI. Seth Thompson went 3-for-5 on the day, walking twice and scoring.
On Deck
The two squads will wrap up their three game set and eight game season series tomorrow, with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. CT. Duluth has two more home games on their season-long seven-game homestand afterwards, hosting the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters. The Huskies will hit the road for five in a row after that. Tickets for all Duluth home games can be found online on the team website, and all Huskies baseball action can be streamed on FloSports.