WATERLOO - Miscues and numerous walks, understandably, draw the ire of Waterloo Bucks manager Pete Lauritson.

Needless to say, the skipper wasn't thrilled late Tuesday.

Eleven walks, three wild pitches and one error added up to a 9-2 loss to La Crosse on this night.

"Walks and errors are the two sins of baseball. You can't do that," Lauritson noted.

La Crosse strung together nine total hits and two big innings to effectively step on the Bucks' neck.

The Bucks entered the night with just two players batting .260 or better in Michael Giller (.363) and Jason Krizan (.261). All told, Waterloo's team was hitting .236. Those aren't shockingly bad numbers for a college wood-bat league, but they don't lead to lengthy winning streaks, either.

The hosts did little to augment those hitting stats Tuesday, registering just one extra-base hit.

"Our hits just aren't finding a hole," said Manchester native Zach McCool.

The Loggers (20-12) unloaded on the hosts in the sixth, pushing three runs across the plate. First, slugger Aaron Gates rapped an RBI single to right. Then, just moments later, the visitors had the game in a stranglehold, up 5-0.

Waterloo's Willie Argo is 13-for-26 in his last six games after a 3-for-5 effort Tuesday. Other than him, it's a struggle to find a sparkplug in the Bucks' dugout.

La Crosse, on the other hand, received a sterling effort from starter Steven Gruver, who surrendered just four hits over seven innings to improve to 4-0 while whittling his ERA to 1.47.

"That Gruver kid is legit," Lauritson said. "I give him credit. He had more broken bats tonight than we had hits - that's usually not a good sign."

Bucks banter

Club officials say they have two more planned roster moves in coming days. Then, they hope to stay status quo.

The Bucks are expected to add reliever Dennis Chachko of Niagara (2 saves, 3.38 ERA last spring) and an undisclosed high schooler from Santa Clara, Calif.

After that, said Lauritson, "the roster is finalized, and that's what we're gonna make a run with in (the season's) second half."

La Crosse ab r h bi Waterloo ab r h bi

Knight,ss 2 1 0 0 Argo,cf 5 1 3 0

Preckajlo,rf 4 1 1 0 Robbins,dh 5 0 0 0

Baligod,cf 3 1 0 1 Giller,ss 2 0 0 0

Brantly,c 4 1 2 1 Krizan,rf 4 0 0 0

Collins,lf 4 1 2 0 Griffiths,c 3 0 1 1

Gates,1b 3 2 1 1 Hall,1b 4 0 0 0

Hannon,3b 5 0 1 1 White,3b 4 0 1 0

Mickan,dh 2 1 1 0 Keppler,lf 3 1 0 0

Abel,2b 4 1 0 1 McCool,2b 4 0 2 0

Meredith,ph 0 0 0 1 Williams,ss 0 0 0 0

Holt,rf 1 0 1 2

Mueller,ph 1 0 0 0

Burleson,ph 0 0 0 0

Engell,2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 33 9 9 8 Totals 34 2 7 1

La Crosse 002 003 040 - 9 9 2 Waterloo 000 000 011 - 2 7 1

DP - Waterloo 1. E - Engell, Holt; Giller. LOB - La Crosse 9, Waterloo 9.

2B - Argo. SB - Knight, Gates; Argo. SF - Collins.

Pitching summary

La Crosse IP H R ER BB SO

Gruver(W,4-0) 7.0 4 0 0 1 1

McClintick 1.0 2 1 1 1 0

Munson 1.0 1 1 0 1 0

Waterloo IP H R ER BB SO

Linsky(L,0-3) 5.2 5 5 4 5 2

Heithoff 1.2 2 4 4 4 1

Wagoner 0.2 2 0 0 1 1

WP - Gruver; Linsky 2, Heithoff. PB - Griffiths. HBP - Giller (by Gruver).

T- 2:58. A - 972.