La Crosse, Wis. – All nine batters in the Loggers’ starting lineup recorded a hit in La Crosse’s 10-7 victory over Bismarck in front of 2,963 fans at Copeland Park on Saturday night.
The Larks scored first on a three-run home run to right field from Michael Farnell in the top of the first inning. La Crosse put an unearned run across in the bottom of the second as Harrison Freed (Butler) scored on a passed ball to cut the lead to 3-1. Bismarck, however, would extend its lead to 5-1 in the top of the third inning after scoring two unearned runs as a result of two hits and two Loggers errors.
With the score 5-1 in the bottom of the third, the Loggers’ offense exploded for eight runs on eight hits, batting around to take a 9-5 lead in the contest. The big inning was highlighted by three Loggers home runs, including a three-run shot to dead centerfield from Harrison Freed, and back-to-back long balls from Armani Smith (UC-Santa Barbara) and Kyson Donahue (Arizona). Loggers’ starting pitcher Cam Baumann (Iowa) did not have his best stuff on Saturday night, but battled through 5.0 complete innings to secure his third victory of the season. Baumann gave up seven runs (five earned), but recorded his biggest strikeout of the night on his final pitch, getting the Larks’ leadoff man to chase a ball in the dirt with two runners in scoring position to escape the fifth inning with a 9-7 lead.
The Lumbermen added a valuable insurance run in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly from Jarron Silva (UCLA) that scored Korey Lee (Cal) who reached on a single and advanced to third on a pair of hits from Shane McGuire (San Diego) and Harrison Freed. La Crosse was led offensively by Freed (2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI) and McGuire (3-for-5, 2 2B, RBI). The Loggers collected a total of 14 hits as Korey Lee and Bryce Blaum (Texas A&M) both added multi-hit performances.
Jon Meyerring (Miami OH) was excellent in relief Saturday night, picking up his second save of the season after shutting out the Larks in the final 4.0 innings, allowing only one base runner and striking out three.
The Loggers will look to make in two in a row on Sunday evening with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 PM CT. La Crosse’s Largest Night of Yoga will be taking place at noon at Copeland Park presented by Root Down Yoga.
The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in 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, more than 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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