La Crosse Loggers comebacks thwarted, as St. Cloud heads to World Series with bottom-of-9th win

A win away from the league World Series, a rollercoaster of a season came to an end Tuesday for the La Crosse Loggers, in a rollercoaster of a game.

The Loggers came from behind twice — first a three-, then a four-run deficit — in the Northwoods League playoff semifinals, only to see St. Cloud win it, 9-8, with two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

La Crosse, which had the worst record in their division the first half of the season and the best record in the second, started from behind right from the beginning, as the Rox scored three runs in the first inning.

After La Crosse tied it in the sixth, it looked like St. Cloud ended the game with four runs in the bottom of the seventh

But, the Loggers answered the next half inning with four of their own.

Tied, headed into the ninth inning, Aidan Sweatt hit a two-out, RBI single to give La Crosse the lead.

But, in the bottom of the inning, Oscar Serratos, Jr., led off the inning getting hit by a pitch, then stole both second and third base.

He tied the game on a sacrifice fly, before Ben Vujovich won it on a walk-off single to center field with two on and no outs.

The game featured 24 hits — 14 by St. Cloud — and 16 walks, 10 of which came from two of the three Loggers pitchers.