LA CROSSE, WIS. – The La Crosse Loggers dropped Thursday night’s game 6-2 to the 1st place Duluth Huskies with 2,162 in attendance at Copeland Park.
The Loggers scored first on a leadoff home run to the opposite field from Brandon Raquet (William & Mary) in the bottom half of the first inning. La Crosse would add a run in the bottom of the third after a leadoff double from Donta Williams (Arizona) and RBI single from clean-up batter Harrison Freed (Butler) to extend the lead to 2-0.
Christian Roa (Texas A&M) made his first start of the season for La Crosse and was impressive early, retiring the first 12 batters of the game. The Huskies, however, demonstrated why they own the highest team batting average in the Northwoods League, scoring five runs on four hits in the fifth inning. A leadoff single and free pass put runners on first and second before an RBI singe by Trevin Esquerra and 3-run home run by Kyle Jacobsen gave Duluth a 4-2 lead. Early MVP candidate Augie Isaacson manufactured a fifth run for the Huskies, reaching on a 2-out infield single, stealing second and third base on consecutive pitches, and later scoring on the throw down to second base on a caught stealing. The Duluth centerfielder is now batting .452 with 17 stolen bases on the year. Despite a promising start from Roa, his night would end after 4.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on four hits while striking out six.
Duluth starting pitcher Hunter Bigge would settle in nicely after allowing a couple early runs, tossing 8.0 strong innings and surrendering two runs (one earned) on six hits, striking out nine with zero walks. The Loggers were lead offensively by Brandon Raquet, who went 2-for-4 with the first inning home run, his second of the season. Colton Larkins (Oral Roberts) was outstanding in relief for La Crosse, pitching the final 4.1 innings and allowing only one run on two hits to lower his season ERA to 1.29.
The Lumbermen will look to split the series with Duluth tomorrow night at Copeland Park, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM CT. Gates will open at 5:00 with a live pregame performance by the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corp, and a Friday night postgame fireworks extravaganza presented by Festival Foods.
The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lacrosseloggers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Loggers as your favorite team.
####