ROCHESTER, MN – The Rochester Honkers earned a come-from-behind 4-3 walk-off victory over the visiting La Crosse Loggers before 435 fans at Mayo Field on Wednesday night.
Rochester drew first blood in this one when they pushed one across in the bottom of the second off of Loggers starter Ian Bedell (Missouri), who was making his first start of the summer. But Bedell settled in after that and went on to toss 5.2 quality innings, eventually departing with a 3-1 lead. That lead was earned when La Crosse tallied two runs in the fifth thanks to an RBI double from Zion Pettigrew (Iowa) and and RBI single from Jacob Blas (Arizona). One inning later, Bryce Blaum (Texas A & M) singled home Harrison Freed (Butler) to give the Loggers the 3-1 advantage.
But the Honkers would knot the score up in the bottom of the sixth with two runs of their own, one charged to Bedell while the other charged to reliever Jon Meyerring (Miami-OH).
The score would remain tied until the bottom of the ninth when the Honkers would work a lead-off walk, move him to second on a sacrifice bunt before a bloop single dropped just out of the reach of Freed in left field who fired a strike home that resulted in a bang-bang play at the plate that was ruled in favor of Rochester ultimately giving them the 4-3 victory.
One night after collecting 12 hits, La Crosse managed just five hits against four Honkers pitchers. Zion Pettigrew went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and drove in a run for the Loggers, who are 5-5 in their last 10 games.
The Loggers will now return home to embark on a four-game homestand beginning on Thursday night when they host the Duluth Huskies at 7:05 p.m. Gates open at 6 for Window World Night at the Park.
