Waterloo, IA – On Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Waterloo Bucks played spoiler by eliminating the Eau Claire Express from the Northwoods League Playoffs in decisive fashion with an 11-2 victory.
After picking up only four hits in his last 45 at-bats, Jake Bechtel stepped up to the plate with two runners on and one out in the bottom of the first. With still no score, the power hitting righty launched a ball over the wall to put the Bucks in front for good.
Two innings later, he crushed his second home run of the day with a two-run blast to log his 12th long ball of the season. Now, Bechtel is one RBI shy of tying the single-season RBI record for Waterloo of 62 held by Adam McGinnis of the 2016 squad. Furthermore, he is one home run shy of tying the team record for home runs in a season at 13 with Zach Daeges of 2005 and Peyton Williams of 2020.
Later on in that frame, Owen Ross singled home a run, and Caleb Parker scored to boost the Bucks’ lead to 7-0.
That lead remained intact mostly because of the strong starting pitching performance delivered by Aidan Elfering. In his fourth consecutive quality start, Elfering dealt 6.2 IP while allowing five hits, three walks and two runs. He also struck out a career-high eight batters en route to delivering his team-high fifth quality start of the year to give Waterloo 16 such outings in total.
Patrick Mendiola earned his first career NWL extra-base hit with a double and drove in a career-high three runs. Mitchell Iliff also drove in a run, and he and Larry Edwards each doubled.
Harrison Dubois and Vincent Cicolello each allowed just one baserunner as they combined for two and one-third scoreless innings to end the game.
Cole Smith extended his hitting streak to ten games, and Mitchell Iliff lifted his to seven.
The Bucks commence their final homestand of the year against the La Crosse Loggers on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at Riverfront Stadium.