Latest News

Published On: August 9th, 2016

Mequon, WI – The Chinooks returned home on Monday to face off against the Battle Creek Bombers after completing the sweep over the Green Bay Bullfrogs on Sunday. It marked the fifth meeting of the year between the two clubs, with the Chinooks getting the better of the Bombers in three of their four previous matchups. The trend continued on Monday, as the Chinooks out-slugged the Bombers to win by a score of 8-4.

Brady Kais (Davenport) took the mound for Lakeshore, making his first start and second appearance of the season. The new-comer faced just six batters in his debut on August 5, giving up one run on two hits in his 1.1 innings of work.

Kais was pitted against Dylan Givens (Southeast Missouri State), who was making his second start of the year. In his last outing on August 2, Givens gave up five runs on seven hits with three walks and one strikeout in his 5.2 innings pitched.

The Bombers didn’t hesitate to attack Kais early in the first. After Nick Podkul (Notre Dame) drew a two out walk, back-to-back home runs by Dean Miller (Riverside City College) and Christian Helsel (Penn State) gave the Bombers a quick 3-0 lead.

Kais was pulled after the first and replaced by Dan Twitty (St. Leo), who was making his debut appearance for the Chinooks. The Chinooks’ offense provided some run support for Twitty in the bottom of the second. After issuing back-to-back walks to Owen Miller (Illinois State) and James Bleming (Lehigh), Nick Horvath (Florida), who is primarily a pitcher, dropped his glove and picked up his bat, roping an RBI single up the middle to score Miller to put the Chinooks on the board.

The Chinooks continued to chip away at the Bombers’ lead in the third. Matt Reardon (Florida Gulf Coast) lead off the inning with a walk, later advancing to second on a one-out single to left by Kevin Riley (Chaffey CC). After Tim DalPorto (Kent State) singled to load the bases, Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) torched a ground rule double to right to score Reardon and Riley to even the game at 3-3. Then, a sac fly to center off the bat of Owen Miller brought around DalPorto to score the go-ahead run for the Chinooks, and a pop fly that should’ve ended the inning was dropped by Bombers’ second baseman Cody Sporrer (UC-Riverside), allowing Johnson to score on the error to give the Chinooks a 5-3 lead.

The Chinooks tacked on one more in the fourth when Matt Reardon came around to score his second run of the game on an RBI single by Kevin Riley to widen the gap to 6-3.

The Chinooks kept their foot on the accelerator in the fifth. Matt Johnson was hit by a pitch and later advanced to second on a one-out single to right by Owen Miller. After James Bleming grounded out to second to move the runners to second and third, a balk by Givens allowed Johnson to score and then a wild pitch brought home Miller to make it an 8-3 ballgame.

The Chinooks’ bats fell silent after the fifth, as Edgar Sanchez (Prairie View A&M) and David Inman (Florida Southwestern) entered the game out of the bullpen and held the Chinooks to just three hits in the final three innings.  

Luke Sommerfeld (Saint Louis) came on in relief of Twitty in the the seventh and shut down the Bombers’ offense the rest of the way. Though the Bombers’ picked up one in the top of the ninth on a fielder’s choice by Jarrod Watkins (Wabash Valley CC), he settled down to secure the 8-4 victory for the Chinooks and pick up his third save of the year.

Dan Twitty was awarded his first win of the season after holding the Bombers to just three hits with one walk and six strikeouts in his 5.0 innings of work. Dylan Givens was issued his first loss of the year after giving up eight runs, seven of which were earned, on six hits with four walks and two strikeouts in his 5.0 innings pitched for Battle Creek.

With the win the Chinooks improve to 17-14 for the second half and 32-35 overall, while the Bombers drop to 17-13 for the season half and 35-31 for the season.

The Chinooks have an off day on Tuesday, but return home to Kapco Park on Wednesday for game two of the series against the Bombers at 6:35 pm.

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 150 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit http://northwoodsleague.com/lakeshore-chinooks or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.