LA CROSSE, Wis. — The La Crosse Loggers kept their hot start to the Northwoods League season rolling with a come-from-behind, 7-6 win over the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders on Friday night at the 2020 home opener of Copeland Park. La Crosse improved to 3-0 on the young season, while the Dock Spiders fell to 1-1.
The difference maker in Friday night’s tightly-contested ball game came in the form of the Loggers’ first home run of the season After Dock Spiders starter Jake Saum (UCLA) loaded the bases, Thursday night’s hero Trey Harris (University of Arkansas) came up big again, unloading the bases with a towering grand slam to give the Loggers a 5-3 lead in the third inning.
Marius “Pigeon” Balandis (Saint Louis University) started for La Crosse and Jake Saum (UCLA) for the Dock Spiders. Both pitchers would struggle mightily. Saum would not be able to pitch out of the 3rd inning as his 5 walks ended his night prematurely. Balandis did allow 3 runs in the 2nd inning but would calm down after that and pitch 4 innings of solid baseball.
Ethan Bradford (University of Nebraska) would come on for the 5th inning to hold the lead for La Crosse. His command evaded him allowing 3 walks and 3 runs to give Fond du Lac a 6-5 lead going into the 6th.
Jason Hodges (John A. Logan) led off the bottom of the 8th inning with a towering, game tying home run. The lead would eventually return back to the Loggers as Luke Brown (University of Louisville) would drive in the eventual winning run.
Kyle Amendt (Dallas Baptist College) tossed a scoreless 8th and 9th inning to seal with Logs’ 3rd straight victory to start off the season.
The Loggers look to continue their undefeated start Saturday night against Fond du Lac starting at 6:05 CT.
