The Waterloo Bucks (16-13) took their first lead in the eighth inning, hanging on for a 6-5 win against the La Crosse Loggers (13-16) on Tuesday afternoon. The win guarantees that Waterloo will hold a divisional lead of no less than two full games heading into their upcoming seven-day first half-ending road trip.
La Crosse scored a pair of runs in the first inning off Bucks starter Adam Ketelsen. Mike Nyisztor (2-3, R, 2B, 2 SAC) led off the second with a single and later scored on a passed ball. The Loggers responded with two more in the third, carrying a 3-1 lead into the home half.
Tony Jenkins (1-5, R, SB) singled and Bennett Hostetler (1-4, BB, 2 R, 3B) drew a walk to open the Bucks’ third. Patrick Ferguson (2-3, 2 BB, 2 R, 2B, RBI) laced an RBI single to right-center, scoring Jenkins. Following a Nyisztor sacrifice bunt, Blake Berry (2-5, 2 RBI) and Alonzo Rubalcaba (2-3, HBP, RBI) each rapped run-scoring singles to knot the game at 4-4.
Both teams went to their bullpens in the fifth, and the Bucks’ Jack Dolak tossed a 1-2-3 frame in his Waterloo debut. Fellow debut-maker Peyton Fuller covered the next two innings, striking out one and allowing a pair of hits. After Fuller surrendered a run in the seventh, Ferguson led off the home half with a double, moved to third on a Nyisztor sacrifice, then was brought home by a Berry single.
Will Christophersen fired a scoreless eighth, working around an error. In desperate need of a clutch hit and tied at 5-5 in the Waterloo half of the eighth, Hostetler banged a two-out triple off the right-center wall, then scored on a wild pitch. Christopherson dealt a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out one to earn his first collegiate victory. Jenkins finished off the game with a dazzling diving catch to rob the Loggers of a two-out single.
Waterloo and La Crosse finish off their home-and-home on Wednesday evening in Wisconsin, with first pitch at 6:35 p.m. on the Bucks Radio Network powered by 1650 The Fan. This game begins a seven-game road trip for the Bucks, closing out the first half.