EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. \u2013 The Eau Claire Express (24-7, 42-22) rolled over the Duluth Huskies (11-19, 27-38) in the opener of a four-game set, winning 13-1.<\/p>\n
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Starter Manny Dorantes cruised through the first inning, but his command deserted him in the second. The right-hander issued three walks and three hits in the frame, allowing four runs to cross the plate and leaving the game due to pitch-count rules. Sawyer Stein\u2019s RBI double and Phillip Cheong\u2019s two-run single were the crucial blows. The Express brought around five two-out runs in the third inning, with Cheong tripling in a pair to cap the inning and give Eau Claire a 9-0 lead.<\/p>\n
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The Express weren\u2019t done. Jake Busson cleared loaded bases with a three-run two-bagger in the fifth, and Quinten Marsh followed with a double of his own that pushed Busson in. The score stood at 13-0. All the while, Eau Claire starter Braxton Bjur had hummed through 5.0 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n
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Duluth scratched a run across in the seventh after an error, a walk, and a sacrifice fly from Wyatt Pennington. That is all the scoring Duluth would do, as the eighth and ninth passed without incident.<\/p>\n
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Owen Maslowski reached in two of four plate appearances with a hit and walk. St. Scholastica teammate Finley Spicer singled in his debut and came in to score after a Reached On Error.<\/p>\n
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Dorantes took the loss after allowing four runs in his start. Kai Valleroy conceded five runs in an inning-plus. Harrison Burdge let up four through 2.0. Braxton Swetland provided a bright spot with 3.0 innings pitched, two hits, two walks, three strikeouts, and no runs allowed.<\/p>\n
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On Deck<\/strong><\/p>\n Duluth returns home to continue its commuter series with Eau Claire. They host the express at 6:35 p.m. tomorrow, then return to Carson Park for two more on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. \u2013 The Eau Claire Express (24-7, 42-22) rolled over the Duluth Huskies (11-19, 27-38) in the opener […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n