The Waterloo Bucks (1-1) fell by a 10-6 final to the Duluth Huskies (1-1) on Tuesday, leaving Duluth with an opening-series split. Waterloo scored a pair of runs in the first, fifth and ninth but couldn’t recover from four-spots put up by Duluth in the first and seventh innings.

Paul Steffensen (0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI, SF) led off the game by drawing a walk and advanced to second on a Tavan Shahidi (1-for-5, R, RBI) single. Gabe Garcia (1-for-3, BB, HBP, RBI) bounced a sharp grounder that deflected off the Huskies shortstop’s glove, scoring Steffensen. Two batters later, Daniel Irisarri (1-for-3, HBP, RBI) lined an RBI single into left, scoring Shahidi and putting Waterloo up by two.

Trailing 5-2 in the fifth, Steffensen again opened the frame with a walk. Garrett McGowan (2-for-3, 2 BB, R, 2B, RBI, SB) crushed an RBI double to left-center, stole third then scored on a Garcia single smacked back up the middle.

Amir Asghar gave Waterloo 4.2 critical innings of long relief, stabilizing the thin pitching staff and striking out two while allowing just one run on one hit with zero walks. Following a rocky seventh, Camren Landry (1.1 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 4 K) entered and retired four batters all on strikeouts to close things out.

The Bucks tacked on two more in the ninth as Blaine Marchman (0-for-3, HBP, R) was struck by a pitch and Aaron Treloar (0-for-3, BB, R) walked, then the pair advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch. Steffensen rocketed a sacrifice fly to deep left, McGowan drew a walk and Shahidi tapped an RBI groundout to third.

Waterloo closes out their season-opening three-game road trip on Wednesday evening with a 6:35 pm first pitch at Mayo Field against the Rochester Honkers.