Duluth, Minn. – The Duluth Huskies matched the MoonDogs throughout the Friday’s game, and finally came away with the big hit they needed in the 11th, as they topped the MoonDogs 6-5 in extra innings Friday evening at Wade Stadium.
KC Serna (Oregon), Ryan Durant (Iowa) and Xorge Carillo (Central Arizona) paced the MoonDog (18-9) offense, posting two hits apiece. Nathan Melendres (Miami) and Jared Womack (Oklahoma State) had three hits to lead the Huskies (12-15).
Two runs in the fourth inning gave the MoonDogs the early lead. Durant and Jimmy Patterson (Central Arizona) hit back-to-back doubles to put the Dogs up one. After a Carillo single, Tony Strazzara (San Diego) lofted a foul pop fly to right field to bring Patterson in for the second run of the inning.
The Dogs kept the runs coming in the middle innings courtesy of Serna and Durant. Kenny Held (Central Arizona) started the inning with a single and moved to second on an A.J. Pettersen (Minnesota) sacrifice bunt. Serna came up next, delivering an RBI single for the 3-0 MoonDog lead. Durant then drove a triple, easily scoring Serna, but was thrown out at the plate trying to score on the play.
Ryan Demmin (UW-Oshkosh) allowed just two hits through five innings before the Huskies touched him for two runs in the sixth. Nick Rickles (Stetson) led off the frame with a solo home run before two, one-out singles. Scott Sommerfeld (Parkway South HS) posted the second run with a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-2 ballgame.
The Huskies evened things up the next inning with another pair of runs. With runners on first and second, Rickles rifled a ball to Cody Fick (Evansville) that was mishandled, allowing the third Husky run to score. Jericho Weitzel (Florida) provided the tying run with two outs, as he scored Matt Harrison (North Carolina) with a single to even things at four.
The MoonDogs responded in the top of the eighth with an unearned run. With Carillo on first and Patterson on third a passed ball gave the MoonDogs the 5-4 lead, as Patterson came in for the tying tally.
The MoonDogs gave the lead right back with a bases loaded walk in the bottom half of the inning. John Brebbia (Elon) walked Harrison before retiring the next two batters to keep it a 5-5 ballgame.
Brebbia took the loss, throwing the last 3.1 innings and allowing just the winning run. Matt Patterson (Creighton) was the winner, going 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball with just two hits.
