La Crosse, WI – La Crosse took control early with six shutout innings and a season-high seven strikeouts from Tommy Bridges before the Bucks stormed back in the eighth with a comeback effort that fell just short. La Crosse staves off Waterloo for their fifth straight win against the Bucks, 8-7, on Friday night.
After scoring nine unanswered runs in Thursday’s contest, the Loggers offense got to work in the bottom of the second inning in game two. Eli Small banged a double off the wall in left field to lead off the inning. One batter later, Nicholas Mazzotta drilled his own double to left-center field to score Small to swing La Crosse into the lead, 1-0. After a sacrifice bunt, Kelsen Johnson blooped an RBI single to right to bring Mazzotta in to make it 2-0.
Tommy Bridges took it from there. The Loggers’ starter navigated his way through the Bucks lineup to strike out seven and give up just two hits across six innings in a quality start, which was his longest outing of the season.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Loggers added on with a Jake Quinn leadoff home run to jump the lead to 3-0.
In the bottom of the sixth, La Crosse padded their lead. Small singled, then a couple two-out walks loaded the bases. In back-to-back at-bats, Logan De Groot and Savion Flowers both worked bases-loaded walks to force in two runs to push the lead to 5-0.
In the top of the eighth, the Bucks rose from the dead to tie the game. Dane Most led off with a single, then with one out Caleb Seibers served a double to right to put two into scoring position. During the next at bat, a wild pitch allowed the run to score to put Waterloo on the board 5-1. Later in the AB, Collin Brightwell dunked a single into right field to plate Seibers to cut the lead to 5-2. After a Caleb Parker single, Mitchell Iliff came up and crushed a two-out, game-tying, three-run home run to straightaway center field to even things up at 5-5.
In the home half of the eighth, the Loggers took the lead right back. Quinn led off with a walk, then stole second and moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt. Next man up, Flowers roped a sac fly to right to bring in the game-winning run as Caden Wilson slammed the door shut on a 6-5 Loggers sweep over the Bucks.
With the loss, Waterloo goes to 23-25 on the season and 9-5 in the second half. The second leg of the Bucks’ road trip is in Willmar, Minnesota. Game one against the Stingers is scheduled for 6:35 pm at Bill Taunton Stadium. Kyle Bade gets the ball for Willmar against Jack Walsh of the Bucks.