Honkers Can’t Shake Loggers in 8-2 Loss

La Crosse Loggers (8-6) starter Alex Shake (W, 1-0) buzzed through the bats of the Honkers (4-10) in his six innings, limiting the Honkers to two runs, one earned, in his team's 8-2 win at Mayo Field.

The Honkers stranded nine runners against Shake and 12 in total, going 1-4 with runners in scoring position, including stranding the bases loaded twice.

The Honkers allowed a first inning run for the 11th time in their 14 games, on a lead-off home run by Loggers shortstop Mason McCoy, his first of the year.

The Honkers were able to match that run in the bottom half with a bases-loaded walk but wasted a golden opportunity stranding the bases loaded.

In the second, Erik Cha (L, 0-3) was unable to get the ball past the Loggers as, after a hard hit ball led to an error by shortstop Keaton Weisz, Cha walked the next batter and then gave up three straight line drive base hits to drive in three runs. The biggest of those was a double by catcher Gavin Jones, to make the score 4-1.

Cha gave up two more in the third, bringing the score to 6-1, before pitching a scoreless fourth.

Cha came out in the fifth to try for his first outing of more than four innings this season, but was relieved after giving up a lead-off double to third baseman Jake Hirabayashi.

Hirabayashi came in to score on a sacrifice fly after stealing third base off of pitcher Carter Lilly, who had another good outing with a perfect fifth inning.

The Honkers added one more in the fifth on an Alex Fitchett RBI single to make the score 8-2, but that was all they could muster off the Loggers pitching staff.

The Honkers got good performances from their relievers, Lilly, Bayley Chesterton, Hunter Van Horn, and David Worrell, who combined to pitch five innings while giving up only one run on two hits.

After Shake kept the Honkers offense from stirring after five innings, the Loggers bullpen also had a good performance. They went four innings, three from Chris Boettcher and one from Connor Wollersheim, of two-hit baseball, walking one and striking out four, including the final out in Brett Harrison.

With the loss, the Honkers became the second team in the league with double-digit losses.

The Honkers will be in action again tomorrow night in Waterloo against the league-leading Bucks at 7:05 p.m.