LA CROSSE, WI – The La Crosse Loggers suffered a 9-4 defeat to the Eau Claire Express at Copeland Park, with an attendance of 2,828 fans.
Logger starter Ryan Troye (California Santa Barbara) pitched four innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and striking out five.
His counterpart, Eau Claire’s Cole Selvig (Texas at Austin), threw five innings, giving up two runs on five hits and striking out seven.
Eau Claire took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning with a two-RBI double by Davis Rivers (Texas Tech).
The Express extended their lead in the second inning, capitalizing on multiple Logger errors. Evan Gustafson (Oregon State) scored on an error by second baseman Cooper Brass (New Mexico), Colton Wemhoff scored on a throwing error by catcher Luke Davis (Long Beach City), Reggie Bussey crossed home on a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly by Brigs Richartz (St. Thomas) made it 6-0.
The Loggers responded in the bottom of the fifth inning, with Case Sanderson (Nebraska) driving in two runs with a double to center field, narrowing the gap to 6-2.
However, Eau Claire’s Gabe Richardson (Minnesota-Duluth) hit a three-run home run in the top of the eighth, extending the lead to 9-2.
La Crosse managed to add one more run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI walk by Matt Miura (Hawaii), making it 9-3.
The Loggers added one more in the ninth but ultimately fell short, concluding the game at 9-4.
With this loss, the Loggers’ record falls to 22-13, while the Express improve to 16-20. The Loggers will now travel to Eau Claire for the second game of the series, with the first pitch scheduled for 5:05 p.m.
