Waterloo, IA – The Bucks made it back to Riverfront Stadium for the start of a six-game homestand as Waterloo took on Rockford and stumped the Great Lakes East First Half Champions by a score of 8-6.
In the bottom of the first inning, Waterloo put up two runs on an RBI-Single from Evan Morrison (McPherson College) and a sacrifice fly by Christian Smith (Illinois).

The Rivets add a run of their own in the top of the third with their sacrifice fly to make the game closer, 2-1.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Waterloo uses Rockford errors to their advantage, after getting the bases full and a sacrifice fly from Evan Morrison and another Bucks batter to the plate, Cole Smith (Southeastern CC) and Lucas Moore (Louisville) set a double steal and immediately score on a fielding error of the bat of Marcus Heusohn (UIC), who made it to second himself. Just a batter later, Heusohn advanced to third on a wild pitch and Ian Halverson (Palomar College), sent a ball on the ground to second base but with another error, Heusohn made it home safely and Halverson made it onto the first base bag without an throw. After this half-inning, Waterloo was up 7-1.

In the fifth and sixth innings, Rockford put up four unanswered runs to reach the game within two runs. The score stayed the same in the seventh innings, but into the eighth inning, Rockford scored one and the game was well within clawing distance at 7-6.

Cole Smith led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and then went up to second on a fielding blunder. One batter later, Lucas Moore stroked a single into left field that allowed Smith to score and give the Bucks a two-run cushion.

That’s all the Bucks needed to keep the game in their pocket as Chaney Trout (Eastern Illinois University) came in and set down the side to collect his sixth save of the season and keep the divisional standings even closer.

Waterloo and Rockford face off tomorrow for the final time in 2024 with the first pitch at Riverfront Stadium set for 6:35 PM.