Huskies stroll through sweep of CatsBy Lance Jones
The Duluth Huskies (2-0) turned up the heat early and often scoring five runs over the first three innings on route to a 10-4 win over the Thunder Bay Border Cats (0-2). A complete team victory, with eight out of nine Huskies hitters collecting RBI’s and hits seen Duluth pick up where they left off offensively yesterday after a 5-run ninth gave the Huskies victory in the opener.
Aaron Greenfield’s (Cal State Dominguez Hills) 4-for-5 night paced the Huskies offense which picked up 12 hits. Greenfield scored twice and picked up an RBI in the win. The top of the order created a deadly 1-2 punch with Noah Marcelo (Skyline Coll.) and Lance Ford (Texas) each had 2-RBI’s.
Jake Engel (Dixie St.) had a 2-for-3 night with a double and run scored in the losing cause for the Cats.
Carter Putz’s (Notre Dame) RBI triple in the first got the Huskies party started in the first inning. Preston Hartsell (USC) would double the fun and runs account for the Huskies.
Marcelo’s 2-RBI double would strengthen the Huskies position in the second making it 4-0 through two. Matt Hogan (Vanderbilt) would push across the game winning run with an RBI base hit in the third, part of 2-for-5 night.
The run support was all Austin Smith (Southwestern Univ.) the Huskies starter would need to feel comfortable. He struck out five over four innings of work.
The Border Cats Thomas Grilli (Panola Coll.) would respond with an RBI-single off of Smith in the fourth for his first hit of the season.
Huskies reliever Evan Yedinak would pick up the win in relief striking out four over three innings. And speaking of first of hit of the season, Thunder Bay native Nicholas Fazzari (Parkland Coll.) would be tapped to pinch hit in the seventh and nail a triple into the alley in right-centre giving the home crowd something to cheer for. He would score on a Nate Soriano (Houston Baptist) ground out to cut the deficit to 9-2 after seven.
Each team would tack on runs in the eighth to round out the scoring. Thunder Bay starter Lucas Reid (Sacramento City Coll.) took the loss. Austin Breazeale (GateWay C.C.) struck out four in his two innings of work and Austin Kern (Minot St. U.) struck out two in the ninth as the Cats are still getting a feel for their pitching staff.
The game was marked by the debut of the new videoboard in right field which will be a staple of things to come. Thunder Bay is next home on Saturday night as it will be fireworks night at the ballpark with a special start time of 7:35pm (Eastern). The Border Cats will hit the road for the next two days as they visit Mayo Field and the Rochester Honkers on Thursday and Friday.
