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Published On: April 30th, 2018

Weekend Recap

Pitching remains dominant as Ward fuels Washington Comeback

 

La Crosse, Wis. – The last weekend of April was highlighted by strong starting pitching by Butzin (Madonna), McMahon (UW-La Crosse), Acker (Nova Southeastern), and Hamot (Lewis) – who combined to allow five earned runs and collected 38 strikeouts over 28.0 innings. The weekend also saw more excitement out of the west coast, this time from Washington freshman Braiden Ward and San Diego junior Brhet Bewley.

Bewley had a big weekend at the plate for San Diego, going a combined 5-for-9 with a pair of walks, five RBIs and four runs scored as the Toreros won two out of three vs. BYU. The right handed slugger tripled on Friday, went 3-for-3 on Saturday, and belted his fourth home run of the season on Sunday to cap off his weekend performance.

Braiden Ward batted 4-for-9 while reaching base a total of seven times for the Washington Huskies in a series victory over Washington State. Ward was a nightmare on the base paths for the Cougars, swiping two bases and scoring five runs in the three game series, including the winning run to cap off the Huskies come-from-behind win in Sunday’s finale. Ward fueled the Huskies four-run ninth inning rally, tying the game with a base hit before scoring the winning run on a walk-off wild pitch!

Tyler Butzin was outstanding in his latest start for Madonna, a 5-2 victory over Lawrence Tech on Saturday. The southpaw tossed 7.0 strong innings, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out 11. The Crusaders took two out of three in their final regular season series, earning the 3rd seed in next week’s Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament. Butzin finished the regular season with a 7-3 record and 2.61 ERA, collecting 91 strikeouts over 69.0 innings for the 31-14 Crusaders.

UW-La Crosse junior Mason McMahon earned his fourth victory of the season after lasting 8.0 innings vs. St. Thomas (Minn.) in Friday’s 6-2 win, the Eagles’ fifth straight. McMahon allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits while striking out 12, his sixth start of the season with double digit strikeouts. The returning Logger, who also picked up a save last week for the Eagles, is now 4-1 with an impressive 1.99 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 54.1 innings this season.

Other weekend notables include a pair of 2018 Loggers that performed well despite coming out on the losing end of their outings. Brady Acker made another strong start for Nova Southeastern against #1 ranked Florida Southern, allowing four runs (two earned) while striking out eight over 7.0 innings. Returning Logger Pete Hamot took the loss on Saturday despite allowing just one run on four hits in a complete game effort as the Lewis Flyers dropped a 1-0 game to Oakland City. Newly signed right-handed pitcher Alex Patterson also earned his second victory in relief for UC Santa Barbara, throwing 1.2 shutout innings against UC Riverside on Friday night.

Stay up to date on your 2018 Loggers as we approach the college baseball postseason. We are only a month away from Loggers baseball at Copeland Park, Roll Logs!

The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Entering its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods 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, 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lacrosseloggers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Loggers as your favorite team.

 

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