It was almost a mirror image of last season, in that the outcomes were almost the same, but backwards.
After a heartbreak end to last season, this time, the La Crosse Loggers baseball team is headed to the Northwoods League World Series, beating defending champions, St. Cloud, on the road Wednesday, 8-1.
The Loggers are looking for their first Northwoods title since 2012. They head to Kalamazoo to face the Growlers at 5:35 p.m. Thursday at Homer Stryker Field.
To get here, the Loggers rattled off the best record in the Great Plains East division, the first half of the season, to guarantee a playoff spot.
And luckily they did, because they were the worst team in the division the second half of the season.
What’s funny, is the Loggers did nearly the exact same thing last season — but opposite. Last year they were the worst team in the division the first half and then won the second half on their way to the semifinal, in which they again played St. Cloud.
In that game, however, to get to the NWL World Series, the Loggers came from behind twice — first a three-, then a four-run deficit — and took a one-run lead into the top of the ninth inning, only to see St. Cloud win it, 9-8, with two runs.
Of course, that didn’t happen on Thursday, with a dominating performance right off the bat — scoring four runs in the first inning.
Now La Crosse has a Kalamazoo team that’s won the championship two seasons ago.