Mequon, WI- The Lakeshore Chinooks (11-7) defeated the Kalamazoo Growlers, 6-1, completing the 2-game sweep of the Growlers Tuesday night.
The Chinooks would take the early lead in this one, thanks to a pair of sacrifice flies from Rylan Thomas (Central Florida) and Nick Gatewood (Georgia State) in the bottom of the 1st. The Thomas sac fly scored Matthew Mika (Central Florida) after Mika led off the inning with a single. After Joe Duncan (Eastern Illinois) singled, he was brought home by the Gatewood sac fly, to give Lakeshore a 2-0 lead.
The Chinooks would tack on another run in the bottom of the 2nd on a Connor Kimple (Oklahoma State) RBI single. Caleb Dean (Lamar) set up Kimple with a one-out triple, as Dean came home to score on the Kimple base knock.
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Tim DalPorto (Kent State) doubled, then later scored on a Jack Dunn (Northwestern) RBI single, which plated the Chinooks’ fourth run of the game. Caleb Dean then hit a rocket off the left-field wall, allowing Dunn to score on what was an RBI double off the bat of Dean.
The Growlers cracked the scoreboard in the top of the 4th on an Andrew Huff RBI single. The single scored Jack Duffy after he reached earlier in the inning on an error.
Lakeshore would tack on its sixth and final run of the game in the bottom of the 5th, as a Carson Ferry wild pitch allowed Tim DalPorto to come around and score.
Making his first start of the season for the Chinooks, Aaron Winkler (Richmond) pitched a gem, going seven strong innings, as he allowed just one unearned run on three hits, while walking one and striking out three.
Winkler followed up Austin Havekost’s strong outing with one of his own Tuesday night, as for the second straight night, the Chinooks held Kalamazoo to just one run.
After his start, Winkler said, “I felt really good. I felt comfortable. I was a little nervous when I first got out there, but after the first batter, I definitely settled in.
When asked about the impact of the offense, Winkler said, “It’s a lot easier going out there when you got some runs. You don’t have to worry about every single little mistake and not giving up any runs.”
The Lakeshore Chinooks (11-7) will head to Kenosha for game one of Wednesday’s doubleheader, as Takoda Metoxen (Memphis) takes the ball against the Kingfish, before Lakeshore and Kenosha square off for game two of the doubleheader in Mequon. Cole Gnetz (Miami-Ohio) will get the call in the second game, as the Chinooks look to build off their sweep of the Growlers.
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.
