(La Crosse, Wis.) – The Rochester Honkers (3-2) got on top of the La Crosse Loggers (4-1) early and never looked back to take a 5-1 win on Saturday at Copeland Park.
David Lemasters (Lake Erie) gave the Honkers 6 2/3 innings of nearly flawless work. He allowed zero runs, just one hit and surrendered just one walk to pick up the win. Josh Ibarra (Concordia-Irvine) worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings to pick up the save.
Rochester native Michael Michalak (Illinois) went 3-for-5 and drove in a run, Ryan Casper (Point Loma Nazarene) and Jaylon McLaughlin (Nevada) had two hits apiece. Casper is riding a 4-game hit streak.
Derek Scott (Abilene Christian) led off with a home run on the fourth pitch of the game which gave the Honkers their first home run of the year. The Honkers added one more in the first off of a Reed Hjelle (Minnesota-Crookston) double.
In the third, Michalak came around to score on a wild pitch to give the Honkers another run. In the fifth, Michalak doubled to bring home Scott. Benjamin Sems (Kansas) hit a RBI single to right on the first pitch he saw coming after a 45 minute rain delay.
The Honkers are back in action in La Crosse on Sunday, first pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Hunter Spencer (Bellarmine) is scheduled to make his first start for the Honkers, going against Grant Judkins (Iowa) for the Loggers.
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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.
