Latest News

Published On: July 3rd, 2016

Battle Creek, MI – After beating the Madison Mallards Friday night 14-3, the Lakeshore Chinooks hit the road Saturday morning in high spirits and ready to take on the Battle Creek Bombers in a two game series where they got out to an early lead in game one and secured a 3-1 win over the Bombers.

The Bombers sent starter Austin Bueter (Northwestern Ohio) to the mound who made his third start of the season and came in with a 0-1 record. The Chinooks would strike on Bueter early in the top of the first where he gave up three walks to Joe Duncan (Eastern Illinois), Tim Dalporto (Kent State) and Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) to load the bases for Kurtis Brown (Richmond), who also drew a walk that brought Duncan home to make it 1-0 Chinooks. James Bleming (Lehigh) followed with an RBI flyout to bring Dalporto home and gave the Chinooks a secure 2-0 lead after the first.

After one inning and giving up two runs and four walks, Bueter was taken out and Max Ritchie (Prairie View AM) was called in from the Mallards bullpen. Ritchie came into the game with a 0-4 record and would hold the Chinooks scoreless until the top of the fifth where Matt Reardon (Florida Gulf Coast) and Dalporto both ripped back-to-back singles off the righty pitcher allowing runners on first and second for the Chinooks. Reardon stole third and scored on a wild pitch that made it 3-0 Chinooks. A popout would later end the inning and close the scoring on the night for the Chinooks ball club. Reardon would go an impressive 3-5 from the plate tonight.

Dazon Cole (Central Michigan) made his first start of the season for the Chinooks and had a very strong outing. Cole went scoreless through eight innings where he gave up his only run after Alejandro Gomez (San Diego) got hit by a pitch and Nick Poirier (Michigan) came into run for Gomez. Daniel Patzlaff (Oregon) singled allowing Poirier to score making it 3-1 Chinooks.  

Cole pitched a solid eight innings for the Chinooks and gave up only one run, three hits, and racked up five strikeouts. Keenan Bartlett (Richmond) got called into pitch the bottom of the ninth where he helped secure the win for the Chinooks and earned the save while Cole earned the win.

The Chinooks will take on the Bombers for game two Sunday night at 7:05 in hopes to secure another win and take the series.   

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 150 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visithttp://northwoodsleague.com/lakeshore-chinooks or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.