LA CROSSE, Wis. — Braiden Ward scampered home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the La Crosse Loggers a 7-6 win over the Green Bay Booyah on Saturday evening at Copeland Park. La Crosse improves to 17-20 while Green Bay falls to 16-19.
The Booyah jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Loggers clawed back after an hour-long lightning delay, tying the game after Ward (Washington) grounded out, scoring Tanner O’Tremba (Arizona) who had reached earlier on an error. Luke Seidel (UW-Milwaukee) got La Crosse on the board in the third inning with an RBI single to right, and Kobe Kato (Arizona) scored on a passed ball to make it 4-2 before the weather interruption.
Jared Freilich (Penn State) earned the win for La Crosse, pitching the final 2.2 innings, while striking out four. The bullpen as a whole was solid in relief of Jayson Hibbard (Southern Idaho), as Nevin Wall (McHenry County CC) struck out five over three innings, while allowing no hits in his Loggers debut. Ethan Bradford (Nebraska) helped bridge the gap to Freilich, striking out seven over 3.1 innings of relief. The Loggers struck out 16 batters overall.
La Crosse collected just six hits but also drew six walks, as Andrew Meggs (Creighton) finished 2-for-5 for the Loggers. Kyson Donahue (Arizona) added a double and two runs scored for La Crosse. Kato (23 stolen bases) and Ward (22) each added to their league-leading stolen base efforts, adding a swiped bag each.
The Loggers and the Booyah will square off once again on Sunday, with a 5:05 pm first pitch at Copeland Park.