Eau Claire, Wisc.- The Eau Claire Express scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning to take game two of the home/away series 4-3.
Starting pitchers Alex Shake (Lewis) for the La Crosse and Austin Schulfer (UW-Milwaukee) started out firing. The two gave up a combined one hit through three innings.
Schulfer went 7 innings strong, walking two and striking out ten. Alex gave up only three hits against a offense that put up eight runs on thirteen hits the previous night. He started the game by retiring the first ten Loggers.
Shake held the Express scoreless through five innings, but was taken out with no outs in the 6th after hitting the first two batters of the game.
Connor Wollersheim (Kent State) relieved Shake to get out of trouble. Zach Ashford (Fresno State) scored in the inning on a Rudy Rott (Ohio) bases loaded single, but no further damage was done.
Kevin Collard (San Diego) led the 9th inning off with a double. Luke Farley (Iowa) set him up at third with a groundout to the pitcher. With two outs, Luis Trevino (Houston) was hit by a 2-2 pitch, putting runner on the corners. Griffin Conine (Duke) delivered on a full count with a two-run triple. Conine did not stay on the bases long, because Mason McCoy (Iowa) doubled him to give La Crosse a 3-1.
Eau Claire answered in the bottom half of the 9th. Two walks opened up the inning. Daulton Varsho (UW-Milwaukee) bounced to first base, but an error by the first baseman allowed Sam Hurt (Kent State) to score. Tyler Jones (Air Force) grounded out to the pitcher, but was enough to score the tying run, sending the game to extras.
The Express loaded the bases in the 11th inning and two outs. Mickey McDonald (Illinois-Chicago) scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
Kenny Ogg (Ohio) earns the win to go 1-0, Mitch Stalsberg (Winona State) takes the loss to go 0-1.
La Crosse falls to 3-5 overall in the first half of the season. Eau Claire wins its fifth game to go 5-3. The Loggers continue on the road and will be in Willmar tomorrow night to face the Stingers for the first time in the season. It’ll be a 7:05 PM start time. Catch the game on the Logger Radio Network, Eagle 102.7 or the Loggers Radio App.
