MEQUON, Wi. — The Kalamazoo Growlers (17-18) fall below .500 at the conclusion of the first half at the hands of the Lakeshore Chinooks (13-23) in a 3-1 defeat Monday night.

The theme for Kalamazoo had been pitching struggles over their recent skid, losing now seven of their last eight, but Monday it was the offense that faltered. Rocco Bernadina went seven innings allowing just three runs, two of which came in the seventh off a Drew Reynolds home run that gave Lakeshore the final score. Across the nine innings, Kalamazoo’s offense stranded 13 runners, as a pitching barrage of Brian Crooms (5 IP), Koehn Thomas (Win, 2.1 IP, 1 ER), Jacob Jacome (1 IP), and Zander Bretza (Save) combined to limit the Growlers offense. Brodey Acres was extremely encouraging for Kalamazoo, who went 2-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch, reaching on every plate appearance outside of his ninth inning groundout.

Kalamazoo lost seven of their final eight games in the first half, moving from a 16-11 record to below .500 in just six days. In that time they moved from the top of the Great Lakes East and relinquished the spot to Battle Creek, who would relinquish the top spot to Traverse City on the second to last day of the season. If Kalamazoo wants to continue their strong playoff appearance streak alive, they will have to rely on a strong second half to secure a date with the Pit Spitters in the middle of August.

Kalamazoo begins the second half in Wausau against the Woodchucks on Tuesday night.