Huskies rally falls short in 5-4 home opener loss to Loggers

The first home night of the Duluth Huskies’ season showed why Wade Stadium still matters in St. Louis County, even when the scoreboard turns against them. A crowd that came for opening-weekend energy, a magnet schedule giveaway for the first 250 fans and the usual mix of kids’ inflatables and trivia winnings watched the Huskies claw back against La Crosse before falling 5-4 on Friday, May 29.

Duluth spent most of the night chasing a hole created almost immediately. La Crosse loaded the bases and scored three times in the first inning on a mix of walks and a wild pitch, then added two more runs in the fifth to build a 5-1 cushion. That early gap forced the Huskies to keep pushing, and Anthony Cepeda kept them alive with one run batted in during the third and a two-run single in the fifth.

The home side made its last stand in the ninth. Trailing 5-3 entering the final inning, Anthony Zarzana hit a sacrifice fly to bring Duluth within one. The Huskies still had the tying and winning runs on base when a strikeout ended the game, leaving Wade Stadium with the sound of a rally that had almost turned into a season-opening escape.

The numbers told the rest of the story. Duluth was outhit 10-5, and the loss dropped the Huskies to 1-4, their second consecutive season opening at that record. La Crosse improved to 5-0, a start the club described as its best since at least 2009, and the Loggers have now taken all three meetings with Duluth in 2026.

Even in defeat, the opener showed how much this team is built around place. The Huskies opened their season four days earlier on the road in La Crosse, then brought the same matchup back to Wade Stadium for the first home game of the year. Their 2026 schedule also points to a July 4 home game against La Crosse and an August 7-8 series with Thunder Bay, reminders that the summer calendar in Duluth still revolves around baseball nights at the ballpark.

That local pull is only stronger with nine players on the roster who played high school baseball in the area, including Nick Terhaar, Finn Furcht and Cale Haugen. In a city where Wade Stadium remains one of the clearest markers of summer, Friday’s crowd got a familiar answer: the Huskies can still draw an audience, still stir a comeback and still give Duluth a reason to show up, even when the final out stops the noise.