Tyler Miller carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finished with 6.0 scoreless innings of three-hit baseball to lead the Waterloo Bucks (10-8) to an 8-0 victory over the Duluth Huskies (7-11). With the win, Waterloo swept Duluth in their four-game series at Wade Stadium and now stands alone as the first-place team in the Great Plains East.
Miller struck out four and walked none, overpowering Duluth to the tune of 13 swinging strikes on 88 pitches. He allowed his first hit with two out in the fifth inning.
Waterloo opened the scoring during the fourth as Bennett Hostetler and Patrick Ferguson led off the frame with back-to-back singles. Lorenzo Elion lifted a sacrifice fly to right, bringing home Hostetler. Ferguson added to the scoring in the fifth by reaching on an errant throw that allowed Cole Brooks and Bryce Wooldridge to score.
Jack Corkery covered 2.0 scoreless innings in relief of Miller, working around a two-out double in the eighth to earn a hold.
A nightmare ninth for the Huskies saw Sam Olson, Brooks, pinch-hitter Greg Anderberg and Jake Gitter open with four straight singles. Gitter’s knock brought home two before back-to-back Bucks struck out. Lorenzo Elion laced a two-run triple down the right field line, then scored on a dropped pop-up off of Alonzo Rubalcaba’s bat.
Closer Alec Holcomb tossed a one-two-three bottom half of the ninth, sealing the sweep and the Bucks’ first shutout of 2019.
The Bucks return home to open a four-game series with Thunder Bay on Friday at 6:35 p.m.