Waterloo, Iowa – An eight-run sixth inning and four and one-third innings of scoreless relief from Jack Ghufran (San Jose State) led the visiting La Crosse Loggers to a 9-4 victory over the host Waterloo Bucks on Wednesday night at Riverfront Stadium.
The Bucks jumped out early in this one, scoring twice off of Loggers starter Cristien Banda (Long Beach State) in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.
La Crosse responded with one of their own in the top of third thanks to a one-out single off the bat of Jackson Cobb (Georgia Gwinnett) who stole second and then came around to score on a RBI-single from Carson Ohland (Grand Canyon) to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Waterloo extended their lead to 3-1 in the fourth when a one-out double plate another run and chased Banda from the game after 3.2 innings pitched.
That’s when Ghufran entered the game and shut the Bucks offense down over the next 4.1 innings to setup the scoring frenzy that would ensue in the sixth inning.
After a first pitch ground out, the Loggers would go on to send eight runners across home plate on seven hits, one walk and one Waterloo miscue to take a commanding 9-3 lead.
Jack Mount (Texas State) would come on to pitch the ninth for the Loggers, surrendering one run, but preserved the 9-4 victory for the Lumbermen.
The Loggers pounded out 12 hits on the night with eight different players collecting at least one hit. Ohland led the way with a 3-for-5 night that included one run scored and one RBI. Cobb and Eli Small (Florida Atlantic) each collected two hits as well.
With the win the Loggers improved to 15-20 in the second half and 37-31 overall.
The same two teams will conclude this two-game set on Thursday night back at Riverfront Stading with a 6:35 p.m. affair.