Pitching Falters in 8-6 Loss to La Crosse

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Honkers (7-11, 14-39) up 4-3 through five innings, had a chance to knock off the La Crosse Loggers (8-8, 25-27), but Isaac Friesen was left in an inning too long as the Loggers took a 5-4 lead in an eventual 8-6 victory at Mayo Field.

The Honkers jumped out to 2-0 and 4-2 leads after two innings, but long balls killed the Honkers.

Right away the Honkers loaded the bases with one out in the first that allowed them to score two on a Drew Ellis RBI single and Josh Davis' fielder's choice making the score 2-0.

In the bottom half of the inning, the unlikely Kyle Plantier hit a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2.

However, the Honkers regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning, scoring two more on back to back RBI singles by Turner Buis and Fitzpatrick to make the score 4-2.

The Honker were then held scoreless for the next three innings, as the Loggers added one in the fourth on Griffin Conine tape measure shot to right to make it 4-3 then took the lead in the sixth with two runs. The first was scored when Josh Davis made an error on Kyle Plantier's single, then the second was score on Randy Labaut's single to right. The Loggers could've added more but Alex Fitchett made an incredible throw from deep right on Mason McCoy's fly out to nail Plantier at the plate to end the inning with a 5-4 score.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Honkers were able to tie the game at 5, with Buis' second RBI single of the game, driving in Kyle Kasser.

The bad inning for the Honkers came in the eighth. With Ian Clark on the mound, the Loggers scored three runs on only two hits, as Clark walked two and hit another, and with McCoy's RBI single, and Cullen Large's groundout allowed three to score and the Loggers took a 8-5 lead.

In the eighth, the Honkers were able to add on of their own on Joey Czarske's RBI groundout to short to make the score 8-6.

Jared Liebelt got the win, Ian Clark (0-1) suffered the loss, and Dave Smith got the save for his third of the year.

The Honkers and Loggers play again tomorrow night at 7:05 in Rochester at Mayo Field.