You never know what is going to happen on any given afternoon at a baseball diamond. Case in point, an 8-7 rollercoaster ride win over the Wisconsin Woodchucks at Athletic Park Sunday afternoon.
After a slugfest the night before, early on it looked as though nobody was going to score through the first four innings of play. Then as if rudely awoken from a deep sleep, the Chinooks offense came alive in the most unlikely scenario.
After the first two outs where recorded in the fifth, Jared Fon (UW-Whitewater) drew a two-out walk. As the old saying goes, “two out walks will kill you.” It certainly hurt Woodchucks starter Dan Weigel. Newcomer Tyler Wolfe singled to put two on for leadoff man Andrew Stevenson (LSU) who laced a double to plate the first two runs of the game.
Chris Manning (Valparaiso University) and Mike Papi (University of Virginia) extended the inning with a pair of singles and Aaron Machbitz (South Dakota State University) put the nail in Weigel’s coffin with the fifth consecutive hit, a double, to make it 5-0 Lakeshore.
Wisconsin added a run in the bottom half on a two out RBI single from Levi Meyer to make it 5-1.
Lakeshore added single tallies in the sixth and seventh inning on RBI hits from Sawyer Polen (Kent State University) and John Norwood (Vanderbilt University) to make it 7-1.
Just when it seemed Lakeshore had control of the game, Wisconsin refused to give in. Manager Jameel Ziadeh sent a message to his team by making five defensive changes in the top of the seventh inning and they paid off big time in the bottom half.
Starter Eric Hanhold (University of Florida) was cruising along for the first six innings surrendering a run on only four hits. In the seventh two of the first three Woodchuck batters reached base putting Hanhold in danger for the first time. He then retired Austin Diemer for out number two. Levi Meyer came through again to drive in a pair after both runners moved up on a passed ball. Hanhold surrendered another run before being lifted from the game seeing a six run lead dwindled to three. Luke Lowery came on and gave up another RBI single before finally bringing the inning to a merciful end.
Wisconsin added another run in the eighth to cut the lead to a mere run.
Lakeshore picked up a huge insurance run in the top the ninth when Harrison Bader (University of Florida) scored on an RBI sac fly from Mike Hollenbeck (Illinois State University) to take the 8-6 lead going to the bottom of the ninth.
Wisconsin made it very interesting in the bottom of the ninth thanks in part to guess what, a leadoff walk. The Woodchucks put the first two runners on base and they both moved up on a sacrifice bunt putting the tying run in scoring position with one down.
Mitchell Sewald (LSU) got Jake Jefferies to ground out to shortstop for the second out of the inning. In the process, Josh Goossen-Brown touched home to cut the lead to one. Sewald picked up the final out of the game on a fly out to center leaving the tying run 90 feet away at third.
The win completes a perfect 6-0 road trip. Lakeshore tries to set a new franchise record with their seventh consecutive win at home against the La Crosse Loggers Monday at 6:35.
