With a limited bullpen, the Lakeshore Chinooks needed a strong pitching performance from starter Nick Soldano. Moving up a day in the rotation because of an injury, Soldano delivered that strong performance in aiding the Chinooks to a win on Thursday.
Pitching 7 1/3 innings, the southpaw from North Park University allowed just three runs on eight hits, striking out six and walking three. After entering the eighth inning, Soldano was relieved by Tyler Sparger, who struckout all five batters faced in the final 1 2/3 innings.
Offensively, the game went back and forth following a 2-0 Chinooks lead after one. Green Bay rallied to score two in the third and one in the fourth to take the lead, before Lakeshore tied the game off an RBI double by Forrest Chadwick in the sixth. Tied at 3-3, the Chinooks would score the eventual game-winning run in the eighth inning, when Charlie Markson grounded out to second base to score Matt Harjung from third.
The Chinooks scored four runs on eight hits, improving to 2-0 with a season-opening sweep of the Bullfrogs. The season-long five-game roadtrip continues on Friday in Battle Creek, Michigan, against the defending NWL Champion Bombers at 6:05pm.
