Duluth Huskies become summer sensation
Huskies closer Nate Carter retired the sixth straight Waterloo batter to finish a 5-2 playoff victory.
By John Gilbert
Minor league baseball can be colorful, and when it is an independent league for college players, it can be as unpredictably exciting as baseball can get, at any level.
With two weeks to go in the short summer season of the Northwoods Baseball League, the Duluth Huskies were locked in a battle to try to outdistance three other contenders for the dubious honor of being the second-best team in the North Division behind Waterloo. Flash-forward and the Huskies just finished a meteoric surge to reach the playoffs, capped by shocking Waterloo’s record-setting season champs in two straight games.
The result is a nine-game winning streak that thrusts the Huskies into the championship playoff series.
It shows what a little momentum, consistently balanced hitting, and a monster relief pitcher named Nate Carter can do under pressure. Carter, a 6-foot-3 junior fireballer from Florida Southern, was flat amazing in the two-game sweep against Waterloo, squelching the most high-pressure threat he’s faced all season for the 5-2 victory Monday night at Wade Municipal Stadium. Then he did it again, adding the extra challenge of a little self-induced pressure, to help the Huskies cling to a 2-1 victory in the second game of the best-of-three divisional playoff Tuesday night.
Lakeshore was trying to eliminate Madison in the Southern half playoff, after romping 15-0 in the first game. The Huskies don’t care, undoubtedly, because they go up against either one in the playoff final. From here on in, the traffic signals are all green and the road is downhill for the Huskies, whose captivating run has become a sensational sports story for the Twin Ports this summer.
Through the last two weeks of the regular season, the Huskies seemed to be in the unenviable position of trying to become the second-best team to the Waterloo Bucks, but an interesting detail played into the Huskies hands. Waterloo had won the first half of the league, and when the Bucks proved to be the class of the league by also winning the second half, it meant the rules for the divisional playoffs were enacted: Whichever team finishes second by combining the first and second halves would get to advance to face the Bucks. It looked like the Huskies might not be able to take second in the second half, but if they could keep winning, they could claim second place overall.
Duluth hit its stride and kept winning through that final week. The Huskies rattled off seven straight victories, good enough to outdistance St. Cloud, Mankato and Willmar for second place in the second half — and more importantly, second overall. It seemed a small reward to get into that playoff, because the potent Bucks were waiting. Waterloo had just finished setting a Northwoods League record of 51 overall victories atop the league. So sure of themselves were the Bucks that they eased into the playoffs by losing their last two games.
Dangerous, at this point, to think you can go into a short playoff series with your foot off the gas, especially when the Huskies were speeding along on their best hot streak of the season after finally getting everything into top gear.
The heroes are everywhere on this Huskies team, whether you like hitting, clutch hitting, defense, or pitching — particularly relief pitching in the final innings.
Let’s go back to Monday night. Perfect night, little chilly after the sun disappeared over the hill behind us. Clay Chapman, named pitcher of the year in the league, started for the Huskies, but was nicked for a run in the top of the first and another in the fourth, for a 2-0 Waterloo lead. Waterloo starter Drasen Johnson was throwing bullets, and the Huskies bats were fortunate to get some late-hit deflections to the opposite field, while striking out seven times in seven innings.
Trey Vavra watched his first of two singles go through the Waterloo infield.
The Huskies got a run in the fifth when Chris Bono glanced one off the second baseman’s glove, then Kyle Teaf singled to center. With runners on first and third, Trey Vavra’s grounder was mishandled on a double play exchange and Bono scored.
In the top of the seventh, A.J. McElderry relieved Chapman, who had given up only three hits, and McElderry, a left-hander, struck out two and got a fly ball. The last of the seventh proved to be a fateful turnabout. A walk, a sacrifice and another walk put Brad Wilson and Teaf on, and Conor Szczerba virtually willed his hit to get through to center field, with Wilson sliding across the plate with the tying run.
At that point, J.D. Moore was brought in to relieve Johnson, who was still throwing bullets, and the Huskies appeared happy to see him leave. Trey Vavra singled to right, and Teaf came around to score to put the Huskies up 3-2. Moore then threw a wild pitch in the dirt, and Szczerba raced home to make it 4-2.
Brad Wilson slides home with the tying run for the Huskies, on a Conor Szczerba single in the seventh.
Kyle Teaf hot-footed it home for a 3-2 Huskies lead in the 3-run 7th.
But in the collegiate environment of the Northwoods League, no lead is safe. The Huskies have come from behind to win eight times after trailing past the seventh inning as an example, and the other side can do the same — especially when the other side is champ of both halves of the league. So when the Bucks got a leadoff singe in the eighth, Max Shuh, a bigger left-hander, relieved McElderry. He threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt, then walked the next hitter. Next, Shuh fielded an attempted sacrifice bunt and fired to third — but too late, and the bases were loaded.
Manager Dan Hersey went to the bullpen again and summoned Nate Carter. An accomplished closer, he was coming in with the bases loaded in the eighth, not the ninth. He struck out one Buck on a 3-2 pitch, then he struck out the next hitter, and got out of trouble with a fly ball to right, as the crowd of 1,100 roared their approval.
The Huskies, as if anticipating more trouble, added another insurance run in the last of the eighth when catcher Christopher Harvey blasted a one-out double to the wall in left, and after a strike out, Bono — who should win the award as the toughest No. 9 hitter in the league — lifted a high fly ball down the right field line. Waterloo’s first baseman, second baseman and right fielder all raced to the spot of re-entry and all arrived about at the same moment. The right fielder dived, heroically, but couldn’t quite hang on as he slid along the grass. It went for a double, and Harvey scored to make it 5-2.
That left the big challenge of the ninth still there, but Carter, good as he is, got the added boost of adrenaline from the crowd, which became more electrified with every pitch in the top of the ninth. Strikeout, strikeout, and a pop-up, and the Huskies celebrated wildly with their eighth straight victory.
It was a thoroughly entertaining game, but the thought lingered that going to Waterloo, where the Bucks have a solid record, could turn things back their way. A Waterloo victory in Game 2 would make Wednesday night’s Game 3 very tough indeed.
But shortstop and leadoff man Kyle Teaf scored a first-inning run on a grounder, and Jake Heissler took the mound with a 1-0 lead. Heissler was tough, shutting down the Bucks without a hit for the first five innings. In the sixth, Teaf got on again, and Michael Suiter singled him home for a 2-0 lead. Heissler gave up Waterloo’s first hit in the sixth, and went one out into the seventh before yielding the only Bucks run.
Suddenly it was the ninth inning, and all 51 of those Waterloo victories seemed distant, particularly after the Bucks had lost their last two regular-season games, then lost their third in a row for the first time all year in the first playoff game, and now they were trailing, at home, and facing Nate Carter, closer extraordinaire, in the last of the ninth.
For Carter, holding a 2-1 lead must have seemed too routine. So he walked one hitter, and hit another with a pitch. Not on the tying, but winning runs were on base, and Marcos Calderon came to the plate with two outs. Carter fired, Calderon swung, in a baseball ballet that was repeated 10 times. The first nine were foul balls by Calderon, but No. 10 was strike three, fired past him by Carter.
Huskies win 2-1, for their ninth victory in a row, and Waterloo met its…Waterloo with its fourth straight loss. Chalk up a couple more for momentum, keeping your foot on the gas when it matters most, timely hitting, great defense, and some outstanding pitching — plus that guy named Carter lurking in the bullpen, trying to invent creative ways to notch another victory for the Huskies.
The Duluth Huskies, unloved and unwatched except by a cult of about a thousand fans most of the season, are a great and captivating story. The playoffs have to be swift in the Northwoods League, so these guys can all get back to college, but the members of the Huskies team will remember this outfit, and its cohesiveness and resilience, for as long as they play ball. If you get a chance, you might still find a seat on the bandwagon, right out there at Wade Stadium.
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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