Rockford, IL—The Lakeshore Chinooks fell to the Rockford Rivets 9-5 on Sunday night, the loss dropped the Chinooks to 27-24 overall and 9-7 in the second half.

Regarding the divisional race, the loss moved the Chinooks into 6th in the overall standings, one game behind the 28-23 Kingfish and 27-22 Rockford Rivets. They also moved into a tie for fourth place in the second half divisional race. Currently, they’re 2.5 games back of the 11-4 Wisconsin Rapids Rafters.

Rain defined Tonight's game. It rained during the bus ride, it rained during batting practice, and it rained heavily 20 minutes before the scheduled first pitch at 4:05. Thus, an almost two-hour rain delay ensued.

When the action did get underway at 5:55, the field was still a bit muddy, but it was playable enough. However, the mud did affect multiple aspects of the game.

In the third, Drake Lubin tried to slide into first to avoid a pickoff throw, but his stuck handed landed about a foot short of the base. Then, in the fifth, an easy grounder got the best of Matthew Mika at second base.

I’ve watched a lot of Mika this year, and something like that never happens.

But, the Rivets have three postponed games remaining on their schedule so that they couldn't afford further suspension or postponement.

Here’s how the game went down.

Chinook starter Cyrillo Watson struggled from the word go. In the top of the first, three straight singles by Hunter Feduccia (who leads the Northwoods League with a .394 batting average), Zach Watson, and Brian Klien, loaded the bases.

After striking out Neal Tyrell swinging, it looked like Watson would get out of it, but a bases-loaded walk to Patrick Loeffler and a bases-emptying grand slam by Zach Rheams made it 5-0 Rockford after the first inning.

In his first start since July 8th, Watson exited after allowing 5 runs, 4 hits, and 7 walks in 3.2 innings.

Lakeshore got on the board in the third inning. Joe Duncan singled to lead things off and was driven home by a Rylan Thomas moon shot double off the right field wall. Then, Thomas came around to score when Tim DalPorto knocked a mud-aided RBI single.

In the sixth, Rockford opened up their lead. Bren Spillane led things off with a single, the first Rockford single in 19 straight batters and scored on a Zach Watson double. A sac fly by Tyrell and a Loeffler single added two more. After 6, it was 8-2 Rivets.

A quick note about Rockford going hitless for 19 straight. Aside from the rain, tonight’s game was defined by walks. In total, the Chinook pitching staff handed out 13 walks. Chinook batters drew 0 walks.

In the top of the 7th, two Chinook Cowboys flexed their muscles. Connor Kimple and Daniel DeSimone both went deep to cut the Rivet lead down to 8-5.

Those runs were too little, too late. An insurance run for the Rivets in the 8th put the game out of reach.

The Chinooks are back in action tomorrow at 6:35 where they’ll welcome in the Kalamazoo Growlers for a two-game series. Austin Havekost gets the start. 

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 180 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.