(Rochester, Minn.) – Duluth Huskies starting pitcher Hunter Bigge (Harvard) tossed a six inning gem to lead the Huskies to defeat the Rochester Honkers 3-2 on Friday at Mayo Field. Bigge posted his second win of the year after giving up just one run on four hits to help improve Duluth’s record to 27-12 overall and 3-0 in the second half. The Honkers fall to 17-22 and 0-3.
Honkers starting pitcher Drew Slade (Ripon) turned in his best start of the year despite being the losing pitcher. The left-hander tossed seven innings giving up three runs on six hits and struck out five. Just one of Slade’s runs was earned. Matt Hardy (UC Riverside) came in relief to work two scoreless innings.
Logan Denholm (UC Davis) broke up Bigge’s no-hit bid in the sixth as he crushed his first home run of the year. Additionally, Alex Baeza (Hawaii) launched his first home run of the year. Andy Armstrong (Oregon State) had his first multi-hit game for Rochester after a 2-for-4 night.
The Huskies got on the board with a three-run fifth, Julian Escobedo (San Diego State) singled to right field to drive in the first run of the game. Augie Isaacson (Friends) hit a sacrifice fly to bring the Duluth lead to 2-0. Escobedo later came around to score on an error.
Denholm cut the Duluth lead to 3-1 on a solo home run to lead off the sixth. Baeza added another run in the seventh with a solo home run of his own.
The Honkers and Huskies will rematch on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Chad Tworek (Keiser) is scheduled to start for the Honkers. Tworek has posted a stellar 4-1 record and 2.18 ERA. Hayden Shenefield (Cal State Northridge) is Duluth’s scheduled starter. Shenefield has a 2-0 record and a 4.24 ERA.
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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.
