KALAMAZZO, MI – The storybook ending to the 2024 La Crosse Loggers season ended at 1:35 am on Friday morning on wet field field in Kalamazoo, Mich. as the host Growlers defeated the visiting Lumbermen 8-7 to capture the 2024 NWL crown.
After traveling from St. Cloud, Minn. the night before over to Homer Stryker Field in Kalamazoo, the night started with promise as the Loggers raced out to a 6-1 lead through the first five innings, a very familiar position for La Crosse this post-season. Elijah Ickes (Hawaii) drove in a pair with a 2-RBI single in the second to get the scoring going off of Kalamazoo all-start starter Eamon Horwedel and then the Lumbermen tacked on two more in the fourth followed by two more in the fifth.
La Crosse starter Alijah Acevedo was in cruise control as he kept the Growlers off balance, and off the scoreboard, for much of the first five innings before running into some trouble in the sixth. After a hit-by-pitch and a pair of walks, Acevedo was relieved by Bobby McDonough who was able to limit the damage to just two runs before inducing an inning ending double play preserving the Loggers 6-3 lead.
Steady rain settled in then in the seventh. After the Loggers went quietly in the top half, Maddax Peck (BYU) was asked to come in and navigate pitching in a steady rain. He mixed in a groundout between four free passes to plate one run for the Growlers before the decision was finally made to pull the tarp on the field with one out in the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded and a 6-4 lead for La Crosse.
After a two-hour rain delay, action resumed and the Loggers brought on Micah Worley (Stony Brook) to try to get out of the jam. A one-out walk brought Kalamazoo to within one run before he recorded a strikeout and then yielded another walk that knotted the score at 6-6 before he was able to get a groundout to end an inning that saw Kalamazoo score three runs on no hits and a two-hour rain delay.
Both teams would be held scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings pushing the title game into extra innings where one of the most entertaining NWL Championship games would ensure and carry on into the early morning hours of Friday. After both teams went scoreless in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings, the Loggers would push one across in the top of the 13th to take a 8-7 lead only to have Kalamazoo answer right back in the bottom of the 13th with one of of their own to tie it back up.
After a scoreless top of the 14th, Brandon Sanchez would lift a one-out, deep flyball to left-centerfield to score Gabe Springer to give the Growlers the victory and the 2024 Championship after nearly seven hours.
The Championship was Kalamzoo’s second title in the past three years. The Loggers have now appeared in three NWL Championship games/series having lost in 2009, won in 2012 and now being defeated in 2024.