The Battle Creek Bombers jumped out to an early lead against the Lakeshore Chinooks Monday night at Kapco Park, but fell, 8-3.

For the third straight game, the Bombers would take the lead in the top of the first inning, this time against Chinooks starter Brady Kais. With two outs, Nick Podkul walked before the Bombers went back-to-back to take a 3-0 lead. Dean Miller took Kais' 1-0 pitch to deep left center to give the Bombers a 2-0 lead before Christian Helsel followed with a solo shot to left to make it 3-0.

And after just one inning, the Chinooks would pull their starter Kais, bringing in Dan Twitter in relief in the top of the second.

But Chinooks would get on the board against Dylan Givens in the bottom of the second, as after drawing two, two-out walks, Nick Horvath lined a single up the middle to score Owen Miller and cut the Bombers lead to 3-1.

And then in the third, the Chinooks tied things up and took the lead. Matt Reardon led off the inning with a walk, before back-to-back singles from Kevin Riley and Tim Dalporto loaded the bases for Lakeshore. A ground rule double by by Matt Johnson tied the game at three before a sacrifice fly hit by Owen Miller gave the Chinooks a 4-3 lead.

An error allowed the Chinooks to extend the inning and take a 5-3 lead heading to the top of the fourth, before a bloop single in the bottom of the fourth would extend the Chinooks lead to 6-3.

The Chinooks would add to their lead in the sixth, as they scored on Givens' balk and wild pitch, scoring runs for the fourth straight inning and extending Lakeshore's lead to 8-3.

Givens allowed 8 runs, 7 earned, on 6 hits over 5.0 innings pitched as he'd exit after throwing 94 pitches, taking the loss for the Bombers.

Edgar Sanchez would relieve Givens in the sixth throwing two scoreless innings of relief for Battle Creek to keep Lakeshore's lead at five. David Inman would relieve Sanchez in the eighth and pitching a scoreless inning, but the Bombers couldn't get much going at the plate after the first.

The Chinooks bullpen would combine to shut down the Bombers after the first as Dan Twitty and Luke Sommerfeld combined to pitch 7.0 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits after the first, as Battle Creek headed to the 9th down 8-3.

The Bombers would load the bases in the top of the ninth on two walks and a single by Storm Joop and a RBI groundout by Jarrod Watkins would give the Bombers a run, cutting the Chinooks' lead to 8-4, but Podkul would pop out to end the Bombers' threat.

With the loss, the Bombers fall to 35-31 on the season and 17-13 in the second half while the Chinooks move to 32-35 and 17-14 in the second half. With the loss and wins by Kalamazoo and Green Bay, the Bombers magic number remains at two.

After an off day Tuesday for the MLB Dreams Showcase in Madison, Wis., the Bombers will look to split the series against the Chinooks on Wednesday evening at 6:35 CST/7:35 EST as they send Nigel Ward to the hill.