La Crosse, Wis. – The La Crosse Loggers rallied late, but came up short in a 6-5 loss to the Duluth Huskies in front of 2,837 fans at Copeland Park on Friday night.
Both teams scored a run in the first inning on a humid night at the Lumberyard, with the Huskies striking first with an unearned run on an errant throw from the catcher on a stolen base attempt. The Loggers answered with an RBI fielder’s choice from Korey Lee (Cal) plating Brandon Raquet (William & Mary) who started the inning with a free pass. La Crosse would add a second run the following inning on an RBI groundout from Shane McGuire (San Diego) scoring Ramon Padilla (Illinois Central) and giving the Loggers a 2-1 lead.
The Huskies regained the lead in the fourth inning on an RBI double by Justin Mitchell and RBI triple by Julian Escobedo that skipped passed the right fielder. Loggers’ starting pitcher Cam Baumann (Iowa) struggled with his command for the first time this season as he walked five, but battled to keep the Lumbermen in the game. The southpaw allowed three runs and took the loss, but all three runs he surrendered were unearned and Baumann finished his outing strong to complete 5.0 innings of work.
The Huskies would score valuable insurance runs in the sixth and eighth innings, as their leading hitter Augie Isaacson turned around a 3-0 fastball up the middle for an RBI base hit to extend the lead to 4-2. Duluth manufactured two more in the eighth inning on just one hit, but free bases were costly for the Loggers all night as a total of nine walks, four errors, two wild pitches, three passed balls, and a hit by pitch gave the Huskies plenty of scoring opportunities.
The Lumbermen battled until the final out, closing the gap to 6-3 on a solo home run to right field by Donta Williams (Arizona) in the bottom half of the eighth. Things would get even more interesting in the ninth, as a two-out, two-run home run to left by Jordan Holladay (South Carolina) would cut the lead to 6-5!
The rally would come up just short, however, as a lineout to shortstop ended the game and earned the Huskies their North Division leading 13th victory of the season. The Loggers (9-8) are back in action Saturday night, as they host the Bismarck Larks (11-7) at Copeland Park with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 PM CT.
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.
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