EAU CLAIRE, WI: La Crosse came into Thursday night’s matchup against Eau Claire looking to piece together a winning streak. The Loggers beat the Waterloo Bucks in game two of their doubleheader last night and were looking to capitalize on that momentum. Unfortunately, La Crosse could not hold onto their late lead and lost 3-2.

The first 7 innings of the game flew by. Both starters were dialed in from the beginning. Garrett Reisz (Creighton) shutdown a red-hot Loggers lineup. He allowed 0 runs, 2 hits and struck out 4. Loggers starter in Jacob Ferris (Louisville) was equally as great. Ferris fired a season high 7 innings allowing 0 runs and 2 hits while striking out 5. The game began to change once the bullpens came into play.

La Crosse pushed across the first two runs of the night in the 8th inning against Express reliever Ross Carver (Dallas Baptist). Poncho Ruiz (San Diego State) drove in the first run of the night while Michael Dixon (San Diego) followed up with one of his own. The lead did not stay that way for long however.

Eau Claire bounced right back in the bottom half against Ethan Bradford (Nebraska) when he came in for relief of Ferris. Bradford walked the bases loaded before Jared Freilich (Penn State) was brought into the game. After an RBI groundout, Nick Marinconz (Cal Poly) tied the game with a 2 out RBI single.

After both teams were unable to score in the 9th and La Crosse in the top of the 10th, it set the stage for Eau Claire in the bottom half. Eli Campbell (Bradley) came in for the 10th. He hit a batter and saw Ryan Lin-Piestrup (UIC) reach on a bunt single. Marinconz stepped up to the plate one final time and walked it off with a base hit to left to win it for the Express.

Both teams will face off once again Friday night at 7:05 PM CT.