Eau Claire North Tops River Falls
Eau Claire North's Tanner Halvorson fires a pitch/Photo by Spencer Flaten, Wisconsin Baseball Central
RIVER FALLS, Wis.—Eau Claire North picked up an important conference win over River Falls when they beat the Wildcats 2-0 on Friday afternoon.
The Wildcats are the defending Big Rivers Conference champions, but the No. 13 ranked Eau Claire North squad moved closer to the 2016 title than their counterparts with the win.
Tanner Halvorson continued his strong play with a complete game one-hitter on the mound for the Huskies. The Wildcats never seemed to figure him out.
The Huskies took the lead in the top of the first after Zac Stange hit a leadoff double and advanced to third on a single by Jon Bickle. Halvorson hit a sacrifice fly to left field to give Eau Claire North a 1-0 lead.
River Falls got two runners on base in the bottom of the second inning, but Halvorson induced a ground ball out to escape the jam.
Eau Claire North added an insurance run in the top of the fourth. Cal Sauro roped an RBI single down the left field line to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Huskies. With the way Halvorson was pitching, that lead proved to be insurmountable for the Wildcats.
Halvorson set down the final eight batters he faced in order. That stretch finalized a shutout with just one hit allowed and seven strikeouts.
Lucas Luedtke pitched well for River Falls, but got no run support from his offense. The senior threw seven innings and allowed just one earned run with five strikeouts.
Max DeGrasse led the offense for the Huskies with a 2-for-3 performance. Dylan Penny got the only hit for the Wildcats.
Eau Claire North moved to 9-1 with the win, while River Falls fell to 5-3 on the season.
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