Bucks Beat Rival Rochester In Home Finale [Video]

The Waterloo Bucks closed out their home schedule in style, beating the arch-rival Rochester Honkers 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium Friday night (Aug. 7, 2015).

In the final contest at Riverfront Stadium in 2015, the Waterloo Bucks held on to a 3-2 lead late to overtake the Rochester Honkers Friday night in front of their home fans.

Taylor Gilson (1-0) (Wartburg) picked up right where starting pitcher Brian Drapeau (Long Island) left off in the sixth inning, taking the victory on 3 2/3 scoreless frames out of the bullpen. With the win, the Bucks (31-39/13-21) claimed a share of the 2015 SCHEELS Highway 63 Series Cup.

Tyler Selesky (Florida Gulf Coast) took the first pitch he saw off of Matt Fiedler (2-5) (Minnesota) to deep right field in the bottom of the first to give Waterloo a 1-0 lead. The solo blast marked Selesky’s team-leading fifth home run of the season along with his third to start a game for the Bucks in the first inning. Fiedler took the loss for Rochester over six innings of three-run ball where he allowed five hits, walked three and struck out one.

The Bucks used another quality start from Drapeau as he held the Honkers to two runs, one earned, on six hits along with one walk and four strikeouts. Drapeau was voted by the fans as the Waterloo Bucks Player of the Year in 2015 before the game got underway.

Rochester (38-32/18-18) took a 2-1 lead with single runs in the third and fourth innings before the Bucks responded for two unanswered scores of their own. Miles Mastrobuoni (San Mateo) was hit by a pitch to start the third, and scored to tie the game, 1-1, when Joe DeRoche-Duffin (Connecticut) singled him in with one out.

Slade Heggen (Oregon) recorded one of his three singles to begin the fourth for the Honkers and gave the visiting team their only lead, 2-1, when he scored on a Ryan Summer (Louisville) sacrifice-fly to deep left field. Heggen was aided into scoring position on an errant throw by Daniel Perry (Iowa) at shortstop, and he scored as an unearned run in the fourth.

After a lead-off single, Taylor Lane (Florida) knotted things at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Jonah Bride (Neosho County CC) doubled him in to shallow right-center field. Matthew James (Illinois) was tagged out at home plate on a potential double-steal to end the inning and to keep the score tied heading into the fifth.

Gilson came on in the top of the sixth with a runner at first base and escaped the inning with a strikeout and a man caught stealing by Matthew Stemper (Minnesota). The right-hander took the win in relief as he surrendered just one hit and struck out four the rest of way through the remaining three innings.

Iowa native Chris Kelly (DMACC) sent a pitch to the wall in right-center field to open the bottom of the sixth and utilized his foot speed to leg out a double. Following a Zach McKinstry (Central Michigan) single, Kelly crossed the plate as the winning run when Lane sent a double-play grounder to shortstop in the inning.

The Bucks close the 2015 regular-season with 7:05 p.m. starts on the road against the first-half North Division champion Willmar Stingers on both Saturday and Sunday.

All Bucks' games are broadcast live on waterloobucks.com.

Story By: Matt Gruemmer