(Rochester, Minn.) – The La Crosse Loggers slugged their way to a 6-1 victory over the Rochester Honkers highlighted by a monster three-run home run by Steve Mann (Duke) on Thursday at Mayo Field. The win gives the Loggers a sweep and improves their record to 19-18 overall and 2-0 in the second half. The Honkers fall to 17-21 and 0-2.
Rochester starting pitcher Tristan Stevens (Texas) was the losing pitcher. Stevens surrendered six runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings. Matthew Goytia (Colorado State Pueblo) came in relief to shut down the Loggers offense, he worked 4 1/3 hitless innings and struck out nine.
Matt Hardy (UC Riverside) had the lone multi-hit game for the Honkers, he went 2-for-3 and drove in the lone run for Rochester.
For the second game in a row it was Mike Rothenberg (Duke) who drove in the first run for La Crosse. Rothenberg hit a sacrifice fly to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the first.
The Honkers tied the game at one in the first as Hardy singled to drive in his 10th run of the year.
The Loggers broke the game open with a five-run third inning. Harrison Freed (Butler) got the rally started with a sacrifice fly to center to put the Loggers in front 2-1. Later in the inning, Mann crushed a three-run home run to put the Loggers up 5-1. Jarron Silva (UCLA) capped off the scoring ripping a single back up the middle to extend the Loggers lead to 6-1.
Loggers starting pitcher Eric Mock (Penn State) turned in a dominant five inning performance, the right-hander allowed one run on five hits and struck out 10 to earn his second win of the year.
The Honkers are back at Mayo Field on Friday to host the Duluth Huskies for the first of a two-game series. Friday will be Rich Peterson Bobblehead Night presented by City Auto Glass and ABC 6 News. The first 500 fans will receive a bobblehead of Peterson. Drew Slade (Ripon) is scheduled to make his seventh start for the Honkers, the left-hander has a 1-4 record and a 7.83 ERA. Slade will be matched up against Hunter Bigge (Harvard) from Duluth, Bigge has compiled a 1-2 record and a 3.52 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 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.
