Eau Claire, WI – The Waterloo Bucks made the east day trip from Rochester, Minnesota to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to face off against another Great Plains East foe in the Express for game one in a slugfest that ended in favor of the home team, 10-5.

Luke Finn (East Texas Baptist University) started the offense for either side as he pulled his first home run of the summer over the rightfield wall to give Waterloo a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the first.
The Express only needed one big inning to continue their hot hitting ways, by scoring nine runs in the bottom of the second including a big Grand Slam from Ethan Farris (Texas State), his second Grand Slam in as many days and his first of two home runs in game one.

In the Northwoods League, everyone knows that a lead is never safe and that pitching is needed to stay in games, and that is what righty Luke Riggs (Riverside City College) did out of the bullpen. In 5.2 innings pitched, Riggs allowed just two hits while collecting two strikeouts of his own.

The Bucks weren’t done just yet with offense as they continued to surge back. With an RBI walk from Ian Halverson (Palomar College) scoring Lucas Moore (Lousiville) and an RBI single from Danny Gavin (Gustavus Adolphus College), the score was 9-3 game after the seventh inning. In the top of the eight, Lucas Moore stroked a two-run double to right field to cut the lead to 9-5.

In the bottom of the inning, Ethan Farris smacked a solo shot to left field, his second homer of the game to make it a 10-5 game.

The score would stay put at this score to end Game One and Eau Claire moves up to second place in the Great Plains East Standings.

Waterloo and Eau Claire face off for the final time in 2024 tomorrow, with the July 27th, Sunday matinee set for 2:05