Eau Claire WI – For the first time since 2016, the Eau Claire Express have won the Great Plains East title, in the First Half of the season. This comes after their 12-1 victory over the Rochester Honkers Monday night.

The Express started Isaac Lyon (Grand Canyon University) on the mound, and he took charge, throwing for 7 strong innings, giving up 1 run on just 3 hits. It only took two arms for Eau Claire to get the win tonight, as the only other man out of the bullpen was Michael Trausch (Central Arizona) who came in in the top of the 8th to finish the game, and looked equally impressive, giving up no hits, no runs, and 3 strikeouts.

Offense was the name of the game for the Express tonight as they capitalized early on some Honkers errors to move men around the bases. The first heap of scoring came in the 3rd inning as the Express got leadoff man Kaden Galason (Belmont) on via an error by the Rochester 3rd baseman. He was then driven in by a Ryan Nagelbach (UIC) single. Dylan O’Connell (St. Thomas) was the next batter to drive in runs for the Express, as his double brought 2 more runners home. Finally, Cole Conn (UIC) brought in the 4th run of the inning on a double of his own.

The very next inning, the Express tacked another 5 runs onto the scoreboard via 2 hits and some wild pitching from the Rochester pitcher.

The Honkers’ only run of the game came on a 5th-inning solo home run from DH Kyle Fossum. Other than this shot, Rochester could not get anything going offensively throughout the game.

In the 7th and 8th innings, the Express added a combined 3 additional runs for good measure to bring the final score to 12-1. With this win, they now have punched their ticket to a 2023 playoff game, as they own the sole lead of the Great Plains East division.

Eau Claire will look to keep the momentum going into the second half of the season, which starts tomorrow with a game vs. the Thunder Bay Border Cats at Carson Park. First pitch will be at 5:05 pm CT. Be sure to come out to the ballpark for some 4th of July baseball!

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The Eau Claire Express are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Now in its’ 30^th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 24 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, over 325 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (NYM), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2021 All-Star, MLB Gold Glove winner and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. League games are viewable live at watchnwl.com and on ESPN+. 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.