LA CROSSE, WI – The La Crosse Loggers remained unbeaten on the young 2023 season after defeating the visiting Waterloo Bucks by a final score of 10-9 on Wednesday night in front of 2,354 fans at Copeland Park.
In a back-and-forth contest, the Loggers and Bucks traded blows early to set the tone. La Crosse jumped out on top with a run in the bottom of the first when Seth Cox (Memphis) was walked with the bases loaded to score Jordan Donahue (Hawaii), who was making his 2023 debut. But Waterloo answered right back in the top of the 2nd with three runs of their own off of Loggers starter Michael DeBattista (Dodge City CC) to take a 3-1 lead.
The scoring continued through the third with both teams putting tallies on the board and after three complete, Waterloo held a 5-3 advantage before pushing their lead to 6-3 with another run in the top of the fifth.
The Lumbermen would briefly trim the lead to 6-4 with a run in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI groundout from Matthew Piotrowski (Cal State LA), but Waterloo again answered with a run in the top of the seventh to put their lead back to three at 7-4.
After the stretch, La Crosse would rally once again. A pair of walks to start the bottom of the seventh to Brandon Hager (Arkansas State) and Cox would put two on for shortstop Mitch Wood (Yavapai College) who promptly laced a two-RBI double. One batter later Michael Dixon (Concordia-Irvine) would single to centerfield to plate Wood to knot the game up at 7-7.
After a scoreless eighth, the Bucks would plate two runs in the top of the ninth off of reliever Brayden Sanders (Memphis) to give the visitors a 9-7 advantage going into the bottom of the ninth. Dylan Kordic (Cal-Poly) would reach to start the frame before Mic Paul (LSU) would reach via a hit by pitch to set the stage for pinch-hitter Ben Zeigler-Namoa (Hawaii) to make his Loggers debut. The left-handed hitter dumped one into left field to score Kordic and Bucks reliever Ethan Alexander uncorked a wild pitch to the next batter to score Paul to tie the game at 9-9 and send the game to extra innings.
Sam Hart (Iowa) came on in the tenth for the Loggers and worked out of a jam to give the hosts a shot in the bottom of the tenth. With the ghost runner on second base to start the inning, Cox laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance the runner to third. The next batter, Kordic, lifted a long fly ball to deep left field over the drawn-in outfield to drive in the winning run and send the Loggers to a perfect 3-0 start to the 2023 season.
Hart (1-0) picked up the win in relief and the Bucks fell to 0-3. Kordic and Wood lead the way for the Loggers at the plate with each recording two hits and also driving in two. The same two teams will do battle again on Thursday night in the series finale with the first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
