After surrendering a grand slam in the first inning, Donnie Hissa (University of Notre Dame) was brilliant on the mound in a complete-game effort. The sophomore picked up 11 strikeouts en route to a 7-5 victory over the Wisconsin Woodchucks Saturday evening from Athletic Park.
The Woodchucks drew first blood in a battle of first-place teams in the southern division when Josh Goossen-Brown launched a grand slam to give his team the lead in the first inning.
It didn’t take long for a Chinooks offense which has been rolling of late to respond. After strikeout to Jered Fon (UW Whitewater) to open the third inning, the next three men reached base before Ryan Krill (Michigan State University) returned the favor with a grand slam of his own to tie things at four.
Lakeshore added three more in the fourth inning on an RBI groundout by Harrison Bader (University of Florida) and a two RBI double from Mike Papi (University of Virginia) to take a 7-4 lead.
With his offense in full swing, Hissa put it on cruise control. After surrendering the grand slam in the first inning, the right-hander allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out nine.
The only other run of the contest came in the fifth when leadoff hitter Levi Meyer reached on an error by shortstop Sawyer Polen (Kent State University) and scored on an RBI single from Jake Jefferies. After that run, Hissa retired 10 in a row before giving up a single to Matt Tellor who was then cut down trying to stretch it into a double on a great throw from right fielder John Norwood (Vanderbilt University).
Hissa’s performance marked only the ninth time this season a starting pitcher has completed a game in the Northwoods League. He joins Jason Hoppe and Joe Greenfield (Eastern Illinois University) as the third pitcher to do so in franchise history.
Lakeshore looks for their sixth consecutive victory Sunday in the final game of their two-game series in Wausau. First pitch 5:05. You can catch Dan Pfeiffer on the call by logging onto ustream.tv and searching “Lakeshore Chinooks” starting at approximately 4:55.
