The Waterloo Bucks’ (25-17, 2-6) thin pitching staff and banged-up lineup demonstrated their moxie and heart in a thrilling 7-6 10-inning win over the Rochester Honkers (19-21, 4-4) on Tuesday night. Down 3-1 through six, the Bucks rallied for four in the seventh and another in the eighth before taking the decisive lead on a Max Jung-Goldberg (0-for-0, RBI, SF) pinch-hit sac fly in the tenth. Jalen Smith (2-for-4, BB, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI), Johnny Tincher (2-for-4, BB, R) and Josh Kasevich (2-for-5, RBI) each had two hits while Reuben Church (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K) earned the save in his first pitching appearance since his junior year of high school to secure the win.<\/p>\n
Waterloo opened the scoring in the first as Tincher and Smith reached on back-to-back leadoff singles, Kasevich bounced into a fielder’s choice then Garrett McGowan (0-for-4, RBI, SF) plated Smith with a sac fly. The Honkers scored three in the home half, chasing the Bucks’ starter from the game.<\/p>\n
Aaron Treloar kept the deficit at two with 3.0 scoreless innings of relief, striking out four and allowing just one baserunner on a walk. Decker Stedman entered after Treloar, going 3.0 frames of one-run baseball while scattering four hits and two walks, punching out one.<\/p>\n
The Bucks made their comeback in the seventh as Dalton Chandler (1-for-3, HBP, R, RBI, SF) led off with a double but held at second on a Chris Seng (1-for-4, BB, R) one-out single dumped into center. Tincher laced a single to left, loading the bases, then Smith rifled a game-tying two-run double down the left field line. Kasevich followed with an infield single bounced over the mound, scoring Tincher, then Smith alertly scampered home on a throw to first to put the Bucks in front 4-2.<\/p>\n
Rochester scored a run in the following half-inning. Liam Critchett (0-for-3, BB) drew a walk and was pinch-ran for by Ryan McNally (0-for-1, 2 R) in the ensuing frame, with McNally later scoring on a Chandler sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
The Honkers tied the game in the ninth inning with a two-run home run, sending things to extras tied at six. With McNally on second with the tiebreaker rule, Emi Gonzalez (0-for-1) advanced him to second on a flyout then Chandler was hit by a pitch to put men on the corners for Jung-Goldberg. MJG brought home McNally with a sacrifice fly, giving Waterloo their 7-6 lead.<\/p>\n
Church closed things out in the tenth, inducing a grounder to short that Kasevich alertly initiated a rundown on to cut down the tiebreaker runner at second, then the Bucks’ third baseman-turned-pitcher struck out back-to-back batters featuring a fastball up to 93 mph.<\/p>\n
Eli Emerson earned his third win of the summer with 2.0 innings of two-run, one-hit baseball while striking out three.<\/p>\n
Waterloo and Rochester play a doubleheader on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. and 6:35 p.m. CST at Riverfront Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Waterloo Bucks’ (25-17, 2-6) thin pitching staff and banged-up lineup demonstrated their moxie and heart in a thrilling 7-6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n