Kenosha, WI— The Lakeshore Chinooks defeated the Kenosha Kingfish 3-2 in the second game of a home and home doubleheader on Tuesday night. The win moved the Chinooks to 10-12 on the season and completed a full-day sweep of Kenosha after Lakeshore defeated the Kingfish in the morning game, 4-3. Proving, once again, despite Kenosha being labeled King, Chinooks are the superior fish.
Like game one, game two was a pitchers duel from the onset. On the Chinooks side, Sam Lund, in an impressive bounce-back effort following a rough outing in Fond du Lac, tossed seven strong innings while surrendering two and striking out nine.
“It was really nice to get a comeback start so quick,” Lund said. “Usually, as a starter, you have to sit a week until you go again. It’s good for my confidence that I don't have to sit for a week and think about that bad start.”
Overall, on 89 total pitches, Lund caused Kingfish hitters to whiff 16 times and only allowed hitters to make contact 26 times.
“It was nothing super different [from last time], I just came out there and attacked,” Lund said. “I did basically the same thing, it just worked better than it did last time.”
After the game, Chinook reliever Luke Sommerfeld was bellowing in admiration of Lund as he approached the postgame dinner, “You’re so good! Yay, Sam!” Clearly, the comical right-hander, much like the Chinook faithful, was pleased with Lund’s performance.
For the Kingfish, their starting pitcher, Logan Wiley, was equally as impressive. Through six shutout innings, the hard-throwing righty racked up eight strikeouts and was only removed because he surpassed 100 pitches.
Offensively, the Chinooks were lead by Caleb Dean and Rylan Thomas. Dean, especially, had an excellent day at the dish. In the morning game, he was 2-4 with a double and a RBI, and in the nightcap, he racked up 3 more hits to finish the day 5-8 with a RBI and two runs.
In game two, Dean lead-off the fifth inning with a single and eventually came around to score after Rylan Thomas knocked a hard grounder that was bobbled by the Kingfish shortstop, one of five errors by Kenosha on the night. That run tied the game at one after five innings.
Kenosha responded right back in the sixth to plate the go-ahead run, and with the Chinooks offense seemingly lifeless, the game looked hopeless as Lakeshore faced Kenosha closer, Billy McKay, a sidearmer from Florida with slider nastier than most MLB relievers. McKay, affectionally known as “the lawnmower” by the Fish faithful, wasn't as sharp as the last time he sheared the Chinooks.
To lead off the ninth, Caleb Dean, reached base on a walk, then TJ Raguse pounded a hard hit grounder into the hole that was booted and wildly chucked into the first row of the Simmons Field stands to advance the runners to second and third.
In a big spot, Rylan Thomas stepped up and delivered. He knocked a two-run single that gave the Chinooks a 3-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Then, in a surprise turn of events, Thomas took the mound in the ninth to try and save the game. After getting a leadoff groundout, he walked Max Widmar with one out but forced Cameron Comer into a game ending 6-4-3 double play.
“I hadn't thrown in a while,” Thomas said, but he was comfortable in a closing role from his time at Central Florida. But, really, he was happy to help the team get a win in any role.
“It felt good, any time we can get a win is big time,” Thomas said. “We faced one of the teams at the top of the leaderboard and we were able to come out with two wins so it was big time for us. It builds a lot of momentum.”
The Chinooks will take that momentum into tomorrow when the Battle Creek Bombers come to town. First pitch is at 6:35
The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lakeshorechinooks.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.
