La Crosse, WI – Behind great starting pitching from Chris Petersen and gutsy bullpen performances, Waterloo scored five unanswered runs to knock down La Crosse in the series opener by a score of 5-4. 

After three straight scoreless frames, La Crosse kick-started the offense in the bottom of the fourth. Maxwell Kalk singled to lead off the inning, then came home to score on a Kelsen Johnson one-out RBI single to put the Loggers on top 1-0. 

That was all the scoring against Chris Petersen, who went 5.1 innings, gave up 4 hits, and struck out nine hitters. 

In the bottom of the sixth, La Crosse extended their lead. Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for Joey Stensock, who singled to move everybody up 90 feet to make it 2-0. Now with two outs, Jose Lopez laced a single to left to plate a pair of runs to grow the lead to 4-0. 

In the bottom of the eighth, Waterloo stormed back with a two-out rally. Jake Miller worked a walk with one out, then with two down in the inning, Dane Most walked to bring up George Baker, who slapped a double down the left field line to plate Miller to make it 4-1. Next up, Collin Brightwell reached on an error that let Most in score to cut the lead in half, 4-2. One batter later, Brightwell stole and forced a throwing error that allowed Baker to score to cut the lead to one, 4-3. Caleb Parker laced a single to center to plate Brightwell to even the tally at 4-4. 

The back end of the bullpen went 4.1 innings and ten strikeouts to keep the Loggers quiet and push the games to extras. In the top of the tenth, Zach Davis lifted a sacrifice fly to bring in the extra innings runner to flip the game and take a 5-4 advantage. In the last of the tenth, Sam Skarich came on to shut the door and earn the save.

With the win, Waterloo goes to 6-3 on the season and 4-1 on the road trip. Game two of the series with La Crosse is set for Wednesday night at 6:35 pm. Both starters are TBD.

https://northwoodsleague.com/baseball/game/?id=5746