(Rochester, Minn.) – The Rochester Honkers offense slugged their way past the La Crosse Loggers 8-4 at Copeland Park in La Crosse Wis. The eight run 13 hit performance for the Honkers comes less than 24 hours after being shutout by the Waterloo Bucks. The win broke a five-game losing streak for the Honkers as they move to 15-18 on the year. The La Crosse Loggers fall to 14-18.
Honkers starting pitcher Chad Tworek (Keiser) twirled six dominant innings picking up his fourth win of the year. The right-hander gave up just one run on five hits and struck out two. Matthew Goytia (Colorado State Pueblo) tossed 1 1/3 innings surrendering three runs on two hits. Kevin West (UC Riverside) came in to relief to work 1 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out two. Josh Ibarra (Concordia-Irvine) came in to get the final out of the game with a strikeout to earn his fifth save.
Matt Hardy (UC Riverside) carried the Rochester offense going 3-for-5 and driving in his fourth and fifth RBIs of the season. Nate Webb (UC Riverside) picked up his second multi-hit game of the year finishing the game with two hits to go along with three RBIs. Michael Michalak (Illinois), Reed Hjelle (Minnesota Crookston) and Taylor Adams (Oregon) all went 2-for-4.
Rochester jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a single off the bat of Alex McGarry (Oregon State). In 12 games with the Honkers, McGarry has two home runs and 12 RBIs.
La Crosse came back to tie the game at one in the first as Harrison Freed (Butler) singled home a run.
Michalak started the rally for the Honkers in the fifth, he singled home a run to give Rochester a 2-1 lead. Webb tacked on one more run advancing home on a dropped third strike. Hardy gave the Honkers a big jolt with a two out two-RBI single to give the Honkers a 5-1 lead.
Webb added on some insurance runs for Rochester in the sixth on a double to the left center gap that drove in two.
After the conclusion of a two hour and 15 minutes rain delay, the Loggers got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Kyson Donahue (Arizona) to cut the Honkers lead to 7-2.
The Honkers gave themselves an 8-3 in the seventh lead as Adams tripled and was driven on a ground out by Webb.
The Loggers rallied back in the 8th on a two-run home run by Freed to make it an 8-4 ballgame. Freed finished the night 2-for-5 with three RBIs.
Cam Baumann (Iowa) took the loss for the Loggers, Baumann gave up five runs on five hits as his record falls to 3-2.
The Honkers and Loggers will complete the two-game set on Sunday at Mayo Field. Darin Kilfoyl (Saint Johns River State) is scheduled to start for Rochester, he has compiled a 0.55 ERA and has struck out 28 in just 16 1/3 innings. Kilfoyl will be matched up with Bill Chillari (Duke) from La Crosse, Chillari has a 0-1 record and a 3.52 ERA. Sunday is Slider’s Kids Club Day, kids eat free on the Sports Deck. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
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The Rochester Honkers 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.rochesterhonkers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Honkers as your favorite team.
