Eau Claire, WI – The Waterloo Bucks sent the final game of the season against the Eau Claire Express to the tenth inning, but Eau Claire came out on top in an offensive onslaught by a score of 12-11.
The Express kept their homerun ways going at the bottom of the first inning with a three-run shot from Dylan O’Connell to start the engines for the trains.
Waterloo said, “Not so fast” and answered back with three runs of their own in the top of the second inning with a two-run triple from starting catcher Tagger Tyson (Lousiville), who came around to score one batter late on a Ricky Requejo (USAO) fielder choice. After a quick defensive inning in the bottom half from starter Trey Castile (Simpson College), the Bucks bats scored four more runs to add to their three prior runs. Danny Gavin (Gustavus Adolphus) started the inning with a walk and scored on a wild pitch a few batters later. An Ian Halverson (Palomar College) sacrifice fly to right field scored Evan Morrison (McPherson College) from third and the big hit was still looming. That happened one batter later, when Christian Smith (Illinois) sent a ball over the dead center field wall, well over 400 feet, that scored Marcus Heusohn (UIC) as well to ride the lead to 7-3. Another run in the fourth inning from a Luke Finn (East Texas Baptist) fielder’s choice and it was a five-run cushion for the Bucks.
Between the fourth innings, Eau Claire scored one run in each offensive half, before heading into the bottom of the seventh, Waterloo had scored one more run on an error, Eau Claire responded with a vengeance and added on four runs to lead 10-9 for the first time since the second inning.
The score remained the same until the top of the ninth when Heusohn came across the plate on a passed ball off the catcher to even up everything at 10 and send it to the bottom of the inning.
When nothing was done offensively, the game went into extra innings, the second game to go past the ninth inning in three days for Waterloo. The Bucks didn’t want a repeat of their game against Rochester so they had to score first to keep it going and that’s exactly what Evan Morrison did. A swinging bunt single allowed Cole Smith (Southeastern CC) to score and flip the lead to the visiting Bucks.
Eau Claire stormed back and played small ball worked counts and put up two runs to sweep the Bucks in their final series of the season.
Waterloo heads back to Riverfront Stadium to face off against the Rockford Rivets out of the Great Lakes East for the first time in Waterloo, IA. On Monday, July 29th, the first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM.