Opening Day 2025: Duluth Huskies Fall 10-2 to the Waterloo Bucks

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Northwoods Duluth Huskies

Opening Day 2025: Duluth Huskies Fall 10-2 to the Waterloo Bucks

May 27, 2025 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Duluth Huskies News Release


WATERLOO, Iowa - The Duluth Huskies fell on Northwoods League Opening Day to the Waterloo Bucks, 10-2, in the team's first road test of the 2025 season.

Having trekked from Duluth to Waterloo, Iowa on Memorial Day, the Huskies started off the first inning strong. The second batter of the game, right fielder Kade Thompson, walked before advancing to third on a wild pitch and groundout. Jackson Rains then drew a walk of his own, and promptly got picked off into a rundown, dodging Bucks' tags just long enough for Thompson to cross home and give Duluth a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies sent 2024 Opening Day starter Jackson Smith to the mound Monday for his second-straight season-opening assignment. Smith pitched a one-two-three inning in the bottom of the first, but ran into his first trouble in the home half of the second, surrendering a game-tying solo home run to Bucks left fielder Jake Bechtel.

Just an inning later in the bottom of the third, Waterloo took the only lead they would need with a three run inning, highlighted by a Larry Edwards double to the left field gap and a Jimmy Nugent single.

Despite traffic on the bases in the fourth, Duluth pitching held the Bucks at four runs until Edwards, the Bucks' Player of the Year last summer, continued his torrid performance with a leadoff single in the fifth. A couple batters later, Nugent drove him in once more for his 2nd knock of the game. Edwards and Nugent combined for six hits and six RBIs in the opening contest.

By the end of the fifth, the score was 6-1 Waterloo.

The top of the sixth saw the Huskies manufacture another run without a hit after Thompson reached on a leadoff error, and scored again, this time on a John DiGregorio groundout.

Now holding a 6-2 lead, the Bucks broke open the game in the bottom of the eighth, beginning with a bases-loaded walk drawn by Edwards, and capped off by a two run double off the bat of Nugent. By the time Duluth righty Matthew Foley got the Huskies out of the inning, the Bucks had four additional runs across for a 10-2 lead.

Huskies Reagan Reeder and Ethan Casas-Wu refused to go out quietly, drilling a single and double respectively to set up two runners in scoring position with nobody out in the ninth. Waterloo pitcher Luke Riggs would strike out the next two batters, however, before ending the game with a sharp Thompson lineout to center field, solidifying the series opener for the Bucks, 10-2.

On Deck

The Huskies, reigning Great Plains East Division Champions, lost their Opening Day road matchup last season as well in a 10-5 loss to the Badlands Big Sticks. They'll look to rebound against the Bucks tomorrow night in game two of their four game set at Riverfront Stadium, a place they went undefeated at a summer ago. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM.



Northwoods League Stories from May 27, 2025


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