With their first half postseason hopes sealed, the Lakeshore Chinooks looked to build positive momentum heading into the second half of the season. Tuesday the team took a road trip up to Eau Claire and used a patient approach in a 10-3 win over the Express, a team that handed them a pair of tough defeats a week ago.
Tyler Thicke (UW-Milwaukee) wiggled out of trouble all game long, gutting out six strong innings surrendering two runs, (one earned) on nine hits, while walking one. He relied on his defense to turn two double plays in the first and fifth innings to escape trouble.
Over the last several days, defense has played an important role in the outcome of games. Tuesday was no different. John Norwood (Vanderbilt University) hit a shallow fly ball to centerfielder Greg Harisis that bounced in front of him and skipped passed allowing Norwood to sprit all the way around to third. Cody Bobbit (Wichita State) drove home Norwood with a sacrifice fly to give the Chinooks the 1-0 lead after three.
Eau Claire got two runs back in the fourth on an RBI single from Jose Vizcaino Jr. They added another when third basemen Mike Papi (University of Virginia) was unable to come up with a ground ball.
Bobbit picked up his second RBI hit on a shallow fly to left to tie the score at two in the fifth. Lakeshore took the lead in the sixth when Ryan Krill (Michigan State) led off with a walk to extend his consecutive games on base streak to 28 straight games. Mike Hollenbeck (Illinois State) drove home Papi with a single and Sawyer Polen (Kent State University) followed with a sacrifice fly scoring Krill to double the lead.
The Chinooks put the game away in the seventh scoring six times on only one hit that did not even produce an RBI. Three players drew walks, two of which produced runs. Two players were hit with a pitch and the game was put away when Aaron Machbitz (South Decota State) reached on an error that allowed two runs to score.
The two teams will finish the first half Friday from Carson Park at 6:35 before the Chinooks head to Green Bay for a two game set to celebrate America’s Birthday.
