LA CROSSE — The La Crosse Loggers have five games left in the first half of the Northwoods League season and trying to make their lives a little easier in July and August.
The Loggers (21-9) enter Thursday night’s game at the Eau Claire Express (12-17) with a one-game lead on the second-place Waterloo Bucks (20-10) in the Great Plains East Division.
The first-half champion secures a spot in the postseason regardless of how it performs in the second half. That wouldn’t give La Crosse an excuse to slack the rest of the summer, but it certainly provides advantages with the assurance that the postseason is in its future.
“My first year, we won the second half, and last year we won the first half,” Loggers field manager Josh Frye said. “Winning the first half is the bigger advantage because we can line up our pitching the way we want it to be and get the right players rest because we know the playoffs are coming.
“These guys have shown a lot of perseverance and durability to be out there every day winning ballgames.”
The Loggers won three of their first four games of the season and eight of their first 10 to take control of the division. They finish the first half with this two-game series with the Express, another two-gamer at Willmar (14-13) on Friday and Saturday and another at Badlands (17-11) on Sunday and Monday.
La Crosse has built its success sometimes with its bats and sometimes through its pitching. A group of pitchers that has a collective 5.90 ERA but also ranks fourth in the league with 252 strikeouts over 270 innings caught Frye’s attention early.
“We were looking at having some good pitching, and that showed through the first couple of weeks,” Frye said. “Then our hitters, a lot of whom sat out or redshirted or had minimum at-bats at their schools are starting to catch up, and you can see how our offense has turned around significantly over the last couple of weeks now.”
Central Florida right-hander Mateo Gray took the focus off the bats earlier this week by pitching a complete-game, three-hit shutout in a 6-0 victory over the Express. He is one of four La Crosse pitchers — Pima Community College’s Luis Pablo Navarro, Massachusetts’ Bobby McDonough and Weatherford’s Caden Richardson are the others — with a 2-0 record.
Augustana’s Ashton Michek is 3-1 and Golden West’s Luke Elward 2-1 for the Loggers, and Wichita State’s Jack Mount has a team-high four saves in four attempts and has yet to allow an earned run.
Navarro leads the starting pitchers with an ERA of 1.65, and Richardson leads the team with 29 strikeouts.
The offense, which has a collective batting average of .276 and averages 7.7 runs per game, is led by Vanderbilt outfielder RJ Hamilton, who is batting .444 with 1 home run and 6 RBIs and 3 stolen bases over nine games.
Michigan infielder Brayden Jefferis bats .345 with 7 RBIs and 4 stolen bases over 13 games and has 10 hits over his past four. Maryland first baseman Ryan Costello bats .333 with 2 home runs, 11 RBIs and 6 stolen bases over 15 games.
Florida Atlantic outfielder Eli Small (26 RBIs) and Gray (20 RBIs) are the top run-producers, and future Kansas outfielder Savion Flowers leads the team with 5 home runs and ranks second in RBIs with 23.
The Loggers have scored at least 10 runs five times this season and scored 25 in a win at Thunder Bay on June 16 and 26 in a home win over Willmar on Saturday.
