La Crosse, Wis. – The La Crosse Loggers lost 8-4 to the Rochester Honkers on another hot Saturday afternoon that turned into severe thunderstorms during the late innings. The contest would be delayed by lightning and hard rain in the middle of the seventh inning, resuming 2 hours and 25 minutes later to complete game one of the series.
Rochester jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning after a dropped third strike allowed leadoff man Jaylon McLaughlin to reach. Loggers’ starting pitcher Cam Baumann (Iowa) struck out three batters in the inning but two stolen bases from McLaughlin and an RBI single by Alex McGarry put the Honkers up 1-0. The Lumbermen answered with a run of their own to tie the game in the bottom half as a result of three singles from Donta Williams (Arizona), Steve Mann (Duke), and Harrison Freed (Butler) who drove in Williams from third.
After two scoreless frames, the Honkers broke out for four runs in the fifth off of Baumann with everything coming after two outs. Rochester pushed across four as a result of three hits, two hit batters, and another dropped third strike. The Honkers would add two more in the sixth frame thanks to a two-RBI double from Nate Webb off of Loggers reliever Colton Larkins (Oral Roberts).
After a long weather delay, the Loggers scored a quick run in the seventh after a leadoff double from Korey Lee (Cal) and sacrifice fly from Kyson Donahue (Arizona) to make the score 7-2. The Honkers would answer quickly in the eighth after a triple and RBI groundout. La Crosse would fight to the final out, however, scoring twice in the eighth with a two-run blast from Harrison Freed, his sixth long ball of the season, and loading the bases in the ninth before losing 8-4.
The Loggers will look to split the series with Rochester tomorrow evening before starting an away-home series with the Mankato MoonDogs. The Lumbermen are set to return to the Lumberyard for special Independence Day celebrations on July 3rd and 4th in beautiful La Crosse, WI.
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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