Eau Claire, WI- In his second start with Eau Claire (13-15) this season, California starting pitcher Aaron Shortridge (2-1) tossed eight shutout innings to deliver a 4-0 Express win over St. Cloud (18-11) in front of the home crowd at Carson Park.
Pounding the zone with his high-eighties fastball, Shortridge attacked Rox hitters early in each at bat, as he averaged just over three pitches per batter faced. With tonight’s fantastic outing Shortridge extended his consecutive scoreless innings thrown streak to 13, after silencing the Honkers for seven frames in his previous start back on June 21st.
The first run of the game wouldn’t cross the plate until the eighth inning, when Eau Claire third baseman Kyle Marinconz lined a two-run double into the gap, to give the Express a 2-0 lead. In the very next at-bat, second baseman Luke Bandy would launch a no-doubt two-run shot to left field to extend the gap to four.
Eau Claire reliever Josh Gaworski entered the game in the ninth, retiring the final three St. Cloud hitters in order to lock up a third consecutive victory for the Express.
Tuesday night’s result brought Eau Claire to 13-15 on the season, just six games back of the division-pacing Waterloo Bucks. Should the Express win again tomorrow to pull themselves within one victory of the .500 mark, they could potentially vault as high as forth place in the North Division, should Mankato, Duluth, Bismarck and Willmar all suffer losses.
Eau Claire will be back at Carson Park Wednesday night to finish up this two game homestand with St. Cloud before hitting the road for the next four days. Tomorrow’s start time is scheduled for 6:35 PM, with Lane Ramsey (0-2) set to deliver the first pitch for the Express. In 18.2 innings pitched thus far, Ramsey is running a 3.37 ERA, striking out seven and walking nine.
The Eau Claire Express are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.eauclaireexpress.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Express as your favorite team.