It was the second to last game of the regular season, but the Eau Claire Express were still playing with the same fire, passion and determination they did on Opening Day.<\/p>\n
That’s what happens when the stakes are high while playing meaningful baseball in early August.<\/p>\n
Eau Claire bolted to a big early lead before holding off the Waterloo Bucks 6-5 before 1,642 fans Friday night at Carson Park.<\/p>\n
“These guys just believe in each other,” Express manager Dale Varsho said. “Not one person is the hero every night. We have unselfish players and that makes it fun.”<\/p>\n
Eau Claire improved to 27-8 in the second half and 45-23 overall entering the regular season finale Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Eau Claire clinched the home field advantage for its first round playoff series in the Great Plains East Division.<\/p>\n
The Express will play at La Crosse on Sunday before playing host to the Loggers on Monday night. A third game, if necessary, would be Tuesday at Carson Park.<\/p>\n
Eau Claire jumped out to a commanding 5-1 lead Friday after putting up four runs in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n
Cade Palkowski highlighted the outburst by connecting on a two-run single to right field.<\/p>\n
Palkowski then stole third and scampered home on a wild pitch.<\/p>\n
“Cade has had a great summer,” Varsho said. “He plays hard and he’s been consistent for us.”<\/p>\n
Waterloo fought back to within 5-4 in the top of the sixth inning before the Express scored a big insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.<\/p>\n
Eau Claire shortstop Landon Ubrig hammered a pitch deep into right center field for a triple to lead off the sixth.<\/p>\n
Ubrig then scored when catcher Mikey Muniz drove in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly to left field.<\/p>\n
“Everyone steps up and plays their role,” Muniz said. “We have so many guys on this team who contribute. It’s been great.”<\/p>\n
The Bucks closed within 6-5 in the ninth inning before Express reliever Carter Gunderson closed out the game.<\/p>\n
Gunderson, from Eleva, pitched the ninth inning. He gave up a run, but bounced back to earn his first save.<\/p>\n
“I made a mistake on an 0-2 pitch and I just had to regroup after that,” he said. “I know I have to spot pitches and command the zone.”<\/p>\n
Gunderson pitched Friday at a place he is very familiar with. His grandparents were among the fans in attendance at Friday’s game.<\/p>\n
“I came to a lot of Express games as a kid,” he said. “Being able to play here now is pretty cool.”<\/p>\n
Eau Claire continues to play in front of large, vocal and supportive home crowds.<\/p>\n
“That’s been huge for us. The fans have been great,” Varsho said. “August has always been really good for us. People here like to watch good baseball and right now we are fun to watch.”<\/p>\n
The Express continue to find ways to win.<\/p>\n
“This season has been awesome,” Palkowski said. “We are rolling right now and we are trying to keep it going. We are swinging the bats well and our pitchers do their job every night.<\/p>\n
“We have such great chemistry on this team. Everyone trusts each other and believes in each other.”<\/p>\n
Eau Claire is hitting its peak at the most opportune time of the season.<\/p>\n
“It’s been so much fun,” Muniz said. “We are definitely rolling and playing well as a team. Winning is fun and we are really enjoying the success we’ve been having.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the second to last game of the regular season, but the Eau Claire Express were still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,9330,91626,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,1519,1039],"class_list":["post-773605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-eau-claire","tag-eau-claire-express","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-wisconsin","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117062058871281741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}