The Lakeshore Chinooks took on the Eau Claire Express on Wednesday Night at Kapco Park. The Chinooks had chances early, but the Express starting pitcher continued to bring the heat striking out 8 hitters on the night. “We had our chances; we faced a good team and played hard but didn’t come up with a win today”(Stevenson). Eau Claire tallied one run in the 3rd and 4th inning taking an early 2-0 lead. The Chinooks clawed back in the 5th inning making the score 2-1 but it was not enough to get a victory.
The Express started the scoring in the top of the 3rd inning. With the lead-off man reaching on a single and advancing to third base on a pair of fielder’s choice grounders. Eau Claire lined an RBI single to center field to take an early 1-0 lead.
Eau Claire added another run in the top of the 4th inning. With a quick out, the Express then loaded the bases and knocked in another run with an RBI single pushing the score to 2-0.
After multiple chances, the Chinooks finally struck in the bottom of the 5th inning. Tyler Wolfe (Des Moines Area CC) found himself on second base after a wild throw ended up in the crowd. Wolfe was then advanced to third base and knocked in by Andrew Stevenson (LSU) on a bat shattering RBI groundout making the score 2-1. After the RBI Stevenson stated, “We felt like we were going to be able to pull it off but we ran into two good pitchers at the end."
Lakeshore was down to their last three outs. After a lead-off walk by Mike Hollenbeck (Illinois State), Chris Manning (Valparaiso) laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner to second base. Once again the Express pitching buckled down recording the final two outs and secured a 2-1 win.
Chinooks starter Joe Greenfield (Eastern Illinois) went six innings giving up two runs on five hits and struck out four.
The Chinooks (6-1) return to Kapco Park to conclude their two game set with the Eau Claire Express on July 11th at 6:35 PM. Fans in attendance can enjoy Pepsi Family Night that includes $1.50 hotdogs and $1.00 cans of soda. Come get hooked with the Chinooks as they look to start another streak!
