Huskies Split Doubleheader vs. La Crosse, Gain Half-Game Over Bucks, Express
Northwoods Duluth Huskies

Huskies Split Doubleheader vs. La Crosse, Gain Half-Game Over Bucks, Express

Published on July 27, 2025 under Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Duluth Huskies News Release


LA CROSSE, WI - The Huskies split the doubleheader against La Crosse by wide margins in both games; they took game one by a 14-6 score, then lost by a tally of 14-4 to the Loggers.

Game one began more than seventy-three hours earlier on the 23rd of July in La Crosse, before being cancelled by rain in a 3-0 score in favor of La Crosse. The Northwoods League office decided to resume the game, just two innings old, as part of a doubleheader on the 27th, with the second game of that series to be shortened to seven innings.

Duluth resumed the game with renewed vigor after a dominating performance in their final game against the Waterloo Bucks. New pitcher Simon Murray entered to pick up where the Huskies had left off, and pitched a scoreless bottom of the third.

In the top of the fourth, DH Nate Vargas pummeled a baseball to left, putting Duluth on the board for the first time in the game. The Huskies would add to it in a big fifth inning.

Left fielder Noah Furcht led off the frame with a walk, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then, recent Huskies' addition George McIntyre shot a ball into centerfield for an RBI single, making it 3-2, La Crosse. Third baseman McIntyre similarly moved up ninety feet thanks to a wild pitch, and scored as Nate Vargas hit another RBI single to tie the game.

Vargas was picked off, but Duluth's first baseman Ethan Cole doubled to make up for it. Second baseman Jake Downing walked, and catcher Nate Novitske singled to right to drive in both. By the end of the fifth, the Huskies had flipped the game into their corner, leading by a 5-3 score.

La Crosse put their fourth run across in the home fifth, and the Huskies replied instantly. Shortstop Elijah Fairchild drew another leadoff walk for Duluth, and promptly stole second base to put himself into scoring position. Leadoff batter Rowan Kelly didn't miss the opportunity, driving him in with an RBI single to get the run right back. Noah Furcht singled Kelly in to make it 7-4, and McIntyre lofted a sacrifice fly to bring in the eighth run for the dogs.

Between the two plays, however, Ethan Surowiec was hit in the head by an errant breaking ball. After much deliberation, he was lifted for a courtesy runner, allowing him to return later in the game if he was determined to be healthy. He would do so in the next inning.

His courtesy runner, Tyler Palmer, came in to score on Nate Vargas' single to right, his third hit of the game. Vargas scored for the second time when Jake Downing doubled him home, making it 10-4 for the Twin Ports pups. Downing and Ethan Cole became runs eleven and twelve when Rowan Kelly came up to bat again, this time singling to bring in both. After a marathon sixth in which the Huskies scored seven runs, they led by a 12-4 score.

They added two in the seventh by way of a McIntyre sac fly and a Jake Downing single to score Cole, while the Loggers got back on the board as well.

Two-way player Cal Elvis locked down the game for Duluth in the bottoms of the eighth and ninth, allowing the final run of the game in the latter but giving the dogs the victory nonetheless as he struck out a pair. The 14-6 clock-cleaning gave Duluth it's 39th win of the season. Simon Murray earned the win, his first decision of the year.

Game two was a much less Huskies-friendly contest from the very start. The Loggers put up six runs in the first on just five hits, before nearly matching it for five runs in the second. Both innings used up Evan Rolison and Brode Gann, putting Duluth in an early 9-0 hole.

A response arrived at last in the third, when Kingsley Guthrie scored on a Rowan Kelly RBI single. The Huskies would push across run number two in the fifth, thanks to Noah Furcht's heads-up baserunning on a wild pitch.

Even so, La Crosse made sure the Huskies stayed out of it, by scoring a pair of their own runs in the bottom frame of the fifth, then a fourteenth and final run in the sixth.

By din of the shortened game in the doubleheader schedule, the top of the seventh represented the last chance for the Huskies to climb back into the game, down by twelve runs. They put up a fight, beginning with Tyler Palmer's infield single. Rowan Kelly followed him with another single, this time to right field, and Furcht loaded the bases with a walk. Nate Novitske drove in a pair with a single to right field, bringing in the final two runs of the evening.

The Loggers turned a 6-3 double play to end the second game of the doubleheader, handing Duluth a taste of their own medicine. The loss marked just the 20th of the Huskies season, a Great Plains East best by five games. Thanks to losses by both Eau Claire and Waterloo the same evening, Duluth gained a half-game in the second-half standings through splitting the doubleheader.

On Deck:

The pups will try to win the final game of the regular season that they play in Copeland Park tomorrow evening, with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Central Time. After that, the Huskies will have their final off day of the campaign before heading to Thunder Bay for a two-game set.

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Northwoods League Stories from July 27, 2025


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