LA CROSSE, WI- The La Crosse Loggers pulled out the win tonight in their home series finale against the Willmar Stingers. Zach Smart (Sacramento City) took the mound to start for La Crosse. He picked up his first win of the season by pitching 5.1 scoreless innings.
Smart fell into trouble with multiple baserunners in four of his six innings. But, he managed to get out of each of the innings safely.
Jacob Boston (Mesa) led off the 5th inning with a single. Ryan Kirby (San Diego) and Alex Merritt (North Florida) moved Boston over on sacrifice hits. Michael Echavia (Chabot) drove him right afterwards with a double. But, the Loggers were not done there. Riley Adams (San Diego) walked bringing up Mason McCoy (Illinois Central). Mason hit his first home run of the season over the left field fencing, extending the Logger lead to 4-0.
Willmar battled back in the 7th with 2 runs of their own. Just when the Stingers felt like they had some momentum for a road comeback, Mason McCoy struck again. The Loggers scored a run on a Tyler Stover (Solano) groundout to bring up McCoy. Mason blasted an even farther shot to left to extend the lead to 7-2. La Crosse added another insurance run in the 8th on a walk.
Jordan Jess came in relief in the 7th and pitched 2.1 clean innings, giving up no hits and striking out 3 Stingers. The Loggers won the contest in front of their best crowd of the season at 3,407.
La Crosse now goes on a six-game road trip that features another series with Wisconsin, a interdivisional series in Alexandria, and a rematch against Wisconsin Rapids. The Loggers return home on June 11th to face the Kenosha Kingfish. Game time is 7:05.
