Mequon, WI— The Lakeshore Chinooks fell to the Madison Mallards, 5-2, on Friday night. The loss dropped the Chinooks to 11-13 on the season and snapped their three-game winning streak. For the Mallards, the win moved them to .500 or better for the first time since they faced the Chinooks on June first and second in Madison. 

All in all, this game was a comedy of errors for the Chinooks, and the final box score says everything you need to know. Lakeshore finished with three errors, fifteen strikeouts, eight runners left on base, and a .091 batting average (1-11) with runners in scoring position 

The scoring and the circus started early in this one. In the top of the first inning, the Mallards lead-off man, Cole Daily, reached on an error by Chinook second baseman Matthew Mika and—aided by a wild pitch—came around to score on a RBI groundout off the bat of Doran Turchin.

The Chinooks managed to answer right back in the bottom of the first after Rylan Thomas belted his second homer in as many full, non-rain suspended games. 

But, once the Mallards broke the tie in the fourth inning, they never looked back as they scored two in the fourth and one each in the fifth and sixth to get out to four run lead.

In the fourth inning, Turchin lead-off by drawing a walk from Chinook starter Shane Smith and was knocked home following a Jeffery Mitchell Jr. double and Thomas Smart RBI single. Two batters later, Mitchell Jr. easily trotted home after a Smith pitch hit off the glove of catcher, Nick Gatewood, and rattled against the backstop. 

Smith exited after just four brief innings—facing 18 total batters—and finished with two earned runs, three walks, and three strikeouts. 

In the fifth, Nick Campe replaced Smith, but he too struggled with location. Similar to the innings before, a lead-off walk to Daily proved costly as he came around to score on an Angel Camacho line-drive single to right field. 

Campe remained on the mound for the sixth, but what awaited him—even though this term has used before—is certainly the oddest play to occur in Mequon this summer. 

After inducing a first-pitch groundout to Thomas Smart, Campe plunked Kian O’Brian on a 77 mph breaker that slipped off his hand. Then, on a 0-1 count to Maverick Handley, Campe attempted a “keep him honest” pick-off move over to first base but sailed the throw and saw it fly well down the first base line. 

With O’Brian’s impressive speed, he was able to make it safely into third, but unfortunately, the nightmare play wasn’t over for the Chinooks. After the third baseman, Jason Richardson collected the throw from right field, he lobbed it over the head of Campe and allowed O’Brian to cross home easily. 

That might’ve been the last run the Mallards would score, but it was certainly the most demoralizing. 

However, despite the doom and gloom, there were some impressive Chinook performances from the night. Shortstop Royce Ando finished 3-4 with three hard-hit, line-drive singles. 

“I told myself I needed to start seeing the ball better. Lately, I’d been seen the ball late,” Ando said. “For the rest of the team, I think we had a good approach, but you have to give the [Mallards] pitching staff credit because they had some arms.”

Also, Joe Duncan, a returning Chinook who was a consistent contributor in the 2016 outfield, suited up for his first game of the summer. 

“It’s nice to get back out here; it’s a great atmosphere here—beautiful weather—just an all-around great place to play,” Duncan said. 

The Chinooks battle the Mallards again tomorrow night at 6:35. Austin Havecost takes the mound as Lakeshore looks to get back to their winnings ways.

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.