The Rochester Honkers 2014 season began with a sloppy loss. The Waterloo Bucks defeated the Honkers 8-6 at Mayo Field in front of a crowd of nearly 600 people.

Brandon Zywicki (Missouri Baptist), a Rochester native, started for the Honkers but could not make it to the 4th inning in the game as his defense behind him and his own control kept building his pitch count higher and higher.

The Honkers committed five errors in the contest

West Concord's, Logan Spitzack (St. Cloud State), relieved Zywicki and pitched phenomenally – giving up just one hit and one walk in his 6 innings of work. The Honkers scattered 11 hits in the game, and their biggest chance to complete a comeback came in the 7th inning when outfielder Alex Schultz (UN-Omaha) came to the plate with runners on first and third with only one out. Schultz skied a fly ball to center field as Karl Sorenson (St. Cloud State) prepared to score on the sacrifice fly, but an error on the basepaths for Tanner Buenting (Iowa Central CC) ended the inning’s scoring threat.

First baseman Travis Evanson (Winona State) who had just been activated yesterday morning, hit a two-run homerun in the second inning.

Next, the Honkers will travel to Waterloo for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch tonight against the Bucks and to Eau Claire on Thursday before returning home to play the Eau Claire Express on Friday for fireworks night at the ballpark, sponsored by Townsquare Media.

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