The Devils led from the first inning until there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth when an error extended the inning and the batters were able to get two walks to tie the game.
It looked good early as the Devils scored two runs in the top of the first. Ryan Dwyer led off the game with a single to left. After a fly out to left, Ryan Jakubov singled to short left field. KC Johnson scored the first run of the game with a single to right. Ryan and KC moved up a base as the throw to home eluded the catcher as he tried to tag a sliding Ryan. Lee Gregg scored the final run with a single to right field.
The Diamond Devils added a run in the fourth inning. TJ Aalid hit a soft liner fly to right center that was misplayed by the center fielder. Pat McPherson’s bunt moved TJ to second. After a strike out and walk, Ben Smith singled to score TJ from second.
The Huskies finally got to the Devil’s starting pitcher Pat McPherson in the bottom of the fifth. The first two batters doubled; Brian Meuleners to left and Josh Wendland to right. Josh scored on a single to center in Justin Juergensen’s at bat.
The Devils answered in the top of the sixth with three runs of their own. Luke Hagen got things going with a single to right. Luke was bunted up to second in TJ Aalid’s time at the plate. Pat McPherson’s sharp single to right was hit too hard to score Luke from second. After a strike out, Ryan Dwyer singled to right center scoring Luke. Ben Smith banged a triple off the right field fence to score the remaining runs of the inning.
The Huskies scored two more in the bottom of the sixth. Chris Runke led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Ryan Kaping followed with a single to center. Jerrod Zelm moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Brian Meuleners dumped a single in front of the right fielder to score Chris. Josh Wendland scored the final run of the inning with a sac fly to right field.
The score remained that way until there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Tim Thode and Mike Marquardt singled to lead off the inning. Jordan Schware’s sac bunt moved the runners up and finished Pat McPherson’s day on the mound. Lee Gregg came in and got the first batter to ground out. The next batter hit the ball up the middle however the shortstop was off balance when he fielded the ball. With the error the Huskies scored a run and held runners at the corners. With the pressure mounting the next two batters walked to score the game tying run.
The tenth inning was a little better for the Devils. Pat McPherson was able to reach first on an error by the first baseman. Jeff Pitzenberger followed with a base hit that almost decapitated a charging third baseman. Ryan Dwyer moved the runner into scoring position on a bunt. Ben Smith was intentionally walked to load the bases. Ryan Jakubov scored the winning run with a single to left. After a fly out to center, Lee Gregg scored the three insurance runs with a double in the left center gap.
The bottom half of tenth was much better that the bottom half of the ninth. The Devils still committed an error but two ground balls and a fly out did in a deflated Huskies team.