Harrison Durow gave the Waterloo Bucks (17-8) a masterful performance in an 8-5 win over the Duluth Huskies (8-17) on Thursday evening. The righthander did not allow a hit through five complete before surrendering a leadoff single in the sixth, carving up Duluth with a career-most 6.1 frames of two-hit, two-walk baseball while tying a career-high with seven strikeouts. Thanks to a La Crosse loss in Eau Claire, the Bucks now lead the Great Plains-East by 5.0 games as their magic number moves to seven.

Daniel Irisarri (2-for-4, BB, R) led off the second with a bunt single before being forced at second on a Cameron Repetti (0-for-5, R) fielder’s choice. Sam Biller (2-for-3, 2 BB, R, 2B, RBI, 2 SB) drew a walk then Chris Seng (0-for-5, R, SB) advanced both men with a groundout. Johnny Tincher (1-for-4, 2 BB, R, RBI) plated Repetti with an infield single, opening the scoring.

Irisarri opened the fourth with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch then scored on a Biller double laced into left-center.

Leading off the fifth, Garrett McGowan (2-for-5, BB, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, SB) annihilated a solo home run to deep right, giving the Bucks a 3-0 lead while tallying his 250th RBI. Two batters later Max Jung-Goldberg (1-for-3, 2 BB, R, 2B) doubled down the right field line, crossing home a short time later on an errant throw as Josh Kasevich (2-for-5, RBI) singled.

Durow retired 14 of the first 16 men he faced to pick up his second win of the season, allowing a leadoff single in the sixth that broke up his no-hit bid. He proceeded to retire the next three batters, striking out his seventh of the game to end the inning. Zach Button earned a hold with 1.2 frames of scoreless baseball, striking out two.

Waterloo added four more in the eighth as Biller singled, stole both second and third then Seng reached on an errant throw following a strikeout. Seng nabbed second, then Tincher walked and McGowan ripped a two-run single to right. Tincher would go on to score on a wild pitch before Kasevich plated McGowan with an RBI single back up the middle.

Brycen Mautz earned his second save of the summer by inducing a flyout on one pitch, stranding the tying run on first.

The Bucks and Huskies conclude their season series on Friday night at Wade Stadium with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. CST.