Duluth, MN – The Waterloo Bucks lost 8-3 in a heartbreaker to the Duluth Huskies at Wade Stadium on Sunday, July 20.
With the first two batters of the inning retired and the Bucks trailing by one in the top of the eighth, Waterloo loaded the bases for Parker Sweeney. The Bucks’ left fielder dribbled the ball towards first base, hustled down the line and beat the pitcher’s wayward throw to the bag to send Cole Smith home and tie the game at three as the ball rolled to the Duluth second baseman backing up first. On that same play, the Bucks tried to score the go-ahead run on the errant toss, but a dart to the plate beat the runner and cut the frame short.
The Bucks failed to score another run for the rest of the contest and then watched as the Huskies put up the biggest crooked number of the day with a five-run bottom of the eighth.
Waterloo led for the majority of the game behind a solid pitching performance by Brady Baur who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He finished the day allowing just a pair of hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Allowing only three runs, Baur earned the first quality start of his Northwoods League career and the 12th QS of the campaign for the Bucks as a whole.
Smith drove in each of the first two runs for Waterloo on RBI singles in the first and sixth innings to plate Larry Edwards and Sam Finn successively and put the Bucks in front 2-0. Edwards stole two bases on the day to bring his season total to 45. With his first swipe, he passed Adam Boeve’s mark of 43 from 2002 to move into second for the most steals in a single season by any Buck. Now, he chases only Lucas Moore who stole 48 bags last year for Waterloo.
With his single in the top of the eighth, Jake Slade reached base safely in his 23rd consecutive contest, tying Marcus Heusohn’s run from earlier in the season for the longest on-base streak of the year for any Buck.
The series concludes tomorrow, Monday, July 21, at Wade Stadium where Waterloo will play Duluth at 6:35 pm (CDT).