LA CROSSE, WI – The La Crosse Loggers defeated the Eau Claire Express 7-3 at Copeland Park, thrilling a crowd of 2,681 fans.
Loggers starter Brendan Moody (Louisiana at Lafayette) pitched 2.1 innings, allowing one run on one hit. Reliever Reece Beuter (Iowa) followed with an impressive 4.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and striking out six batters from Eau Claire.
Eau Claire’s starter, Parker Guthrie (Washington STL), pitched four innings, surrendering six runs on seven hits while striking out four.
The Loggers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a two-run home run by Case Sanderson (Nebraska), giving them an early 2-0 lead.
In the top of the third, Eau Claire scored on a Davis Rivers (Texas Tech) RBI walk.
The Loggers responded in the bottom of the third, adding two runs with an RBI double from Derrick Mitchell (LSU) and an RBI single from Zach Wadas (TCU), extending their lead to 4-1.
In the fourth inning, Luke Anderson (BYU) hit a two-RBI single, pushing the Loggers’ advantage to 6-1.
The Express added two runs in the top of the fifth, courtesy of a Davis Rivers RBI single and a run scored by Ragan Pinnow (Augustana) on an error by Loggers third baseman Sebastian David (Stanford).
In the bottom of the fifth, Zach Wadas scored on an error by Eau Claire first baseman Gabe Richardson (Minnesota-Duluth), solidifying the Loggers’ lead.
The Loggers secured the victory with a final score of 7-3, improving their record to 20-11, while Eau Claire fell to 14-19. The teams will face off again in Eau Claire for game two of the series, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m.
Key Players of the Game:
- Case Sanderson (Nebraska): 1 for 2, 2 RBIs
- Luke Anderson (BYU): 2 for 5, 2 RBIs
