Duluth (MN) Aaron Rhodes fired seven innings allowing only two hits and striking out seven as the Waterloo Bucks shutout the Duluth Huskies 5-0 at Wade Stadium on Tuesday night. It’s the first shutout the season for the Bucks and gives the team three straight wins to remain 1/2 game behind Willmar for first in the North Division.

Drasen Johnson pitched the final two innings in his Bucks’ debut to preserve the shutout.

Jake Mahon had three hits and Connor McClain had two hits in the victory.

Waterloo struck in the first inning. Marcos Calderon led off with a single and went to second on a Pat MacKenzie sacrifice bunt. Calderon advanced to third on a groundout and would score when David Kerian’s grounder to second was misplayed by Duluth second basemen Jered Meek.

Duluth had their best chance on Rhodes in the first inning as his former high school rival Keith Curcio walked to begin the inning and eventually advanced to third on two steals. However, catcher Kyle Pollock made at least three run saving saves on dirt balls, while Rhodes would get two strikeouts and a ground out to end the threat.

Pollock’s two-out RBI liner that was just out of the reach of Duluth shortstop Conor Szerba made it 2-0.

Waterloo then iced the game with three runs in the seventh inning. MacKenzie led off with a double and scored on Chesny Young’s double. Young then scored on Jake Mahon’s RBI floater over a drawn in infield to make it 4-0 while a sacrifice flyout by John Ziznewski made the final score 5-0.