Rochester, Minn. – The Eau Claire Express set a new franchise record of six home runs during their 16-7 victory over the Rochester Honkers Saturday night.

In a nine-run advantaged win, the Express jumps to the top of the Great Plains East second-half leaderboard, holding a second-half division high of 11 wins, a .733%  and a two-game win streak.

Walking into Mayo Field, the Trains got rolling right away, securing the first run of the night in the first inning after Hollon Brock hit a single to right field, bringing home CJ Varsho.

Going only two innings without a single run, the Express continued their momentum in the fourth inning, responding to the Honkers securing one run in the bottom of the third.

First up to bat in the fourth inning, Landon Ubrig hit a home run near left field on the first pitch in the inning, to break the 1-1 tie between the two teams, and take the lead. Quickly after Jake Busson hit a groundout to third base, he was able to bring home Cade Palkowski to tally another run.

Followed by Anthony Martinez hitting a double to center field, bringing home Varsho, then a Brock single to center field, bringing home Martinez to close out the fourth inning with a 6-2 lead.

Rochester responded with two more runs of its own, but the Trains just slowly kept climbing, with a catcher error in the fifth inning bringing home Philip Cheong. Followed by a sacrifice fly by Palkowski in the sixth inning, bringing home Nolan Stoll.

Repeating themselves, Eau Claire secured another five runs in the seventh inning, starting with Martinez hitting a home run near center field on the second pitch of the inning, followed by Ubrig hitting his second home run of the night to bring home three.

Ending the seventh inning surge was Cheong, who put up his own home run to right field, his first of the season, to end the inning 13-5.

In the eighth inning, the Express put together back-to-back home runs, starting with Sawyer Stein hitting one to left field, followed by Quinten Marsh hitting his own to right field, right after.

The Trains rolled to a stop in the ninth inning, adding one more run with bases loaded and the Rochester pitcher earning himself a balk, automatically bringing Palkowski home for a final total of 16 runs.

Martinez ended the night leading the Express, going 4-for-6, securing three RBI’s and one home run. Alongside Ubrig, who ended the night going 3-for-5, hitting a team high of two home runs and securing a team high of four RBIs, contributing to the team’s overall 16 runs on 17 hits and one error.

From the mound, Sawyer Hoffman started for the Express, pitching for five innings and dishing out seven strikeouts, limiting the Honkers to eight hits, two walks and five runs. Coming in for Hoffman was Jakeb Lequia, making his debut for the Trains and dishing out two strikeouts, one walk and two hits, followed by Tyler Bartley closing out the game. Bartley dished out two strikeouts, allowing one run, finishing Rochester’s final score at seven runs on 10 hits and four errors.

The Trains will take on the Rochester Honkers once more at Carson Park to finish their two-game series at 2:05 p.m. Sunday.

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The Eau Claire Express is 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. Having completed its 27th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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 250 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 (WAS), 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 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB Gold Glove finalist and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. 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 Google Play and set the Booyah as your favorite team.