La Crosse, WI – Tristan Dietrich delivers five innings of shutout, no-hit baseball in his start and turned it over to Chase Zidlicky for the four-inning save as the Logger offense gave plenty of support in a 9-1 victory over Waterloo in the series opener at Copeland Park. 

After falling behind early in the series finale with Kenosha, Waterloo grabbed the lead in the top of the first in the opener in La Crosse. Larry Edwards walked, stole second, and moved up on a throwing error to kick off the contest. One batter later, Zach Davis grounded out to bring in the run to put the Bucks in front 1-0.

In the bottom of the first inning, La Crosse responded right back. Savion Flowers singled to lead off the inning, then Stephen Chucka doubled to put two in scoring position. After a walk loaded the bases, Mana Lau Kong was hit by a pitch to force the tying run in to make it 1-1. Next up, Maxwell Kalk grounded into a fielder’s choice to put the Loggers ahead 2-1. 

Now pitching with the lead, Tristan Dietrich was nearly perfect. He delivered five innings in his start for the Loggers with just one unearned run pushed across and did not allow a hit en route to his first win of the year.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Loggers gave themselves some breathing room. Flowers led off with a double to left, then with two outs, Sebestian Hurtado brought him home with an RBI single to make it 3-1. With two down, Lau Kong crushed a double to right to plate Hurtado to extend the lead to 4-1. 

In the bottom of the eighth, La Crosse broke the game open. Lau Kong walked with one out before Nicholas Mazzotta ripped a double to left to bring the run in from first to make it 5-1. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Flowers destroyed a 433 ft grand slam to put the game out of reach, 9-1. Chase Zidlicky finished the final four innings to earn his first save of the season in game one of the series against Waterloo.

With the loss, the Bucks go to 23-24 on the season and 9-4 in the second half. The finale of the two-game set in La Crosse is slated for 6:35 pm Friday night. Max Collins gets the nod for Waterloo. The Loggers’ starter is TBD.