Waterloo, IA – Saturday against the Duluth Huskies (7-4) in the first of a two game set, it was the bats from both teams that told the story. Waterloo fell behind early 8-0 but fought back and took the lead in the 8th. The visitors took the lead back in the ninth and held onto it for the 11-10 win. Both the Bucks (8-3) and Huskies combined for 21 runs and 34 hits while Waterloo had a season high in hits with 17 and tied a season high in runs with 10.
Zach Pettiford, the starter for the Bucks got knocked out after just an inning and a third. He gave up eight runs, all earned, on eight hits while striking out and walking one a piece. In came Ryan Doty to stop the bleeding and that’s exactly what he did. He threw 3.2 scoreless innings while giving up just four hits and striking out five.
With the help of Doty and the bats, Waterloo answered tied the game with eight runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Things got started with one out as Benny Roberts hit a single to right field. The next batter, Richard Gonzalez grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning. With two outs, Sean Borman singled to right to put men on second and first. Another single from Riley Good loaded up the bases for Jordan Adams. Adams hit a single to left scoring both Gonzalez and Borman and advanced to second on an error by the left fielder putting Good on third as well. A walk from Peter Leonello packed the bases once again. Nico Zych hit a single to center that scored both Good and Adams. Thomas Lindauer then hit a single scoring Leonello and putting Zych on second base. The next batter, Kevin Kaczmarski used one of his four hits, a single to center, to score Zych. For the second time in the inning, Roberts hit a single to score Lindauer. After a pitching change, Gonzalez brought in Kaczmarski with a single to tie the score at eight runs a piece.
The guests regained the lead, 9-8 in the top of the sixth, but the hosts answered yet again and tie it in the bottom of the frame.
Gonzalez singled home Kaczmarski who singled earlier and reached second on a Roberts’ walk.
The Bucks would take back the lead, 10-9 in the bottom of the eighth. Kaczmarski reached with a single to lead off the inning, advanced to third on two consecutive ground outs and later scored on a wild pitch from third.
The Huskies brought across two in the top of the ninth to take an 11-10 advantage and Waterloo batted in the bottom of the ninth for the first time this year. The Bucks would go three up, three down and lose to Duluth as the 11-10 score stood.
After Doty came Justin Grijalva who went 2.2 innings and gave up just one run that was earned on two hits while walking three and striking out one Husky. Kyle Kramp (0-1) took the loss after giving up the two spot to Duluth in the top of the ninth. Kramp lasted 1.1 innings and gave up those two on 3 hits while striking out one.
It was a big day at the plate for the Bucks. The top seven guys in the lineup had two hits including four from Kaczmarski raising his batting average to .529. Eight of the ten hitters scored a run including three from Kaczmarski himself.
Tomorrow, the good guys finish out this short two game set against Duluth with first pitch set for 3:05. Keep checking back into www.waterloobucks.com for all the latest news on the Cedar Valley’s Home Team.