DULUTH — Jaron DeBerry pitched seven stellar innings and J.D. Rogers provided a good chunk of the run support to lead the Duluth Huskies to a 15-8 victory over the Rochester Honkers Thursday night before 550 at Wade Stadium.
DeBerry, a 6-foot-4 right-hander from Grayson College in Texas, allowed just two hits, with seven strikeouts to only one walk, while Rogers, an outfielder from Vanderbilt, had two hits and five RBIs for the Huskies (16-13), who are only a half-game behind Eau Claire (17-13) in the Great Plains East standings going into Monday’s first-half finale. The Express fell 5-2 Thursday to the Willmar Stingers.
Offensively, Ambren Voitik added three hits and an RBI for Duluth. Voitik was one of six Huskies who scored two runs apiece as they broke the game open with a 10-run eighth inning. Turns out, the Huskies needed those insurance runs as the Honkers scored all eight of their runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Tyler White, Joe Longo, Kimo Fukofuka and Colby Wilkerson had two hits apiece to lead Rochester (13-17), which had its two-game winning streak snapped.
Duluth closes the first half of the regular season on the road starting with a 6:35 p.m. contest Friday at the La Crosse Loggers.
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