In the opening game of their first overnight road trip of the season, the Rochester Honkers (10-5) fell to the Duluth Huskies (8-5) in walk-off fashion. This was the Honkers’ third consecutive loss after winning the previous six before that.

Duluth started the scoring in the bottom of the first, where they took a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Brylan West (South Florida State). The Honkers’ offense was silent through the first three innings, and Duluth widened their lead even further in the bottom of the fourth.

Rochester’s starter Matt Brock (San Joaquin Delta College) pitched well in his previous two starts but struggled in this outing. The redshirt freshman left-hander only went three innings and allowed five earned runs on eight hits.

Trailing 5-0 after three innings, Rochester’s offense got to work. Kimo Fukofuka (San Jose State) crushed his fourth home run of the year deep to left center field to lead off the inning, and Ian Daugherty (Oklahoma State) doubled home Griffen Sotomayor (Washington State) for the second run of the inning.

Daugherty came around to score on a single by Paul Schoenfeld (Colorado Mesa) and crawled back within two. The game kept moving along as Michael Banderas (San Joaquin Delta College) came in and pitched three scoreless innings and kept the Honkers within striking distance.

Rochester took a 6-5 lead on a bases-clearing triple off the bat of Nico Regino (Charleston Southern). Fukofuka singled him home two batters later for his second RBI of the game.

The Honkers tacked on another run in the eighth on a single from Chase Spencer (Air Force) and took an 8-5 lead. Drew Fifer (Indiana State) came on to pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning and gave up the lead.

The Huskies scored three times in the frame to tie the game up. In the ninth, the Honkers got a runner to second base but failed to bring him around.

Will Lavin (Western Illinois) came on to pitch the ninth inning and got two outs before Max Coupe (Skyline College) singled home Carson Applegate (Kentucky) to win the game for Duluth.

The Honkers have lost three straight games since winning six in a row. Rochester is back at it tomorrow as they face Duluth again. The first pitch is at 6:35 pm.

The Rochester Honkers began their 30th season of play on May 29th. Keep up with the team on social media by following them on Twitter (@RochHonkers) and Instagram (@honkersbaseball) and like the Honkers on Facebook at Rochester Honkers Baseball Club. Interact on social by using the hashtag #FunForTheWholeFlock!

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