Bear down

On a night where the Eau Claire Express donned throwback jerseys and became the Eau Claire Bears they pitched like they were a different team too. After allowing 24 runs in the last two games the Express shut down the Duluth Huskies on their way to a 2-1 victory at Carson Park.

The game was scoreless into the sixth inning when Duluth would finally get to Express starter Michael Gomez. He pitched six solid innings allowing five hits and just the one run, but it gave Duluth the lead.

The Duluth lead would be short lived however as Eau Claire nabbed the lead one inning later. In the bottom of the seventh, Travon Benton would score Michael Papierski (LSU) to tie the game with a sacrifice fly.

With two outs in the same inning, Sam Hurt (Madison College) would rip an RBI single into left field to give the Express a 2-1 lead.

Dalton Roach (Minnesota State) would come in and pitch three dominant innings of relief to hold off the Huskies and get the Eau Claire to the finish line. Of his nine recorded outs, eight of them were strikeouts.

“Mainly my fastball was working for me,” said Roach. “Being able to locate it whenever I really wanted to was the key part of this outing for me.”

Roach was the pitcher of record tonight earning his first victory of the season, but still had plenty of praise for Gomez’s start.

“He was getting ahead of guys and that’s when he was really rolling,” Roach said about Gomez’s start. “He was really great tonight.”

The Express improved to 15-17 in the second half and 28-38 overall. With five games to play and the Express eliminated Roach still has big plans in mind.

“My hope is we can win them all,” said Roach. “We definitely have a bunch of great players and I think we can be one of the top teams in our division too, once we get hot were just as good as any other team if not better. It’s that consistency is what we lacked.”

The Express have an off day tomorrow for the Northwoods League Big Leagues Dream Showcase down in Madison, WI. Eau Claire is sending Daulton Varsho, Austin Schulfer, Victor Sanchez, Erich Uelmen, Kyle Marinconz and Anthony Herron Jr. to represent the North Division.

Then the Express continue the series with the Duluth Huskies on Wednesday at Carson Park where first pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. It is the last home game of the 2015 season and is Fan Appreciation Night, sponsored by Eau Claire Ford.