Battle Creek, MI – After the Lakeshore Chinooks took a tough loss to the Battle Creek Bombers Thursday night, both teams took the field for game four of the home away set between the two ball clubs. After a night of quiet bats and an early lead for the Bombers, the Chinooks could not get much rolling and fell to the Bombers in a 5-2 loss.
Making his third start on the year for the Chinooks was righty pitcher Austin Havekost (Kent State) who took the mound with a 6.63 ERA and 12 strikeouts in his 19 innings of work.
The Bombers struck early on Havekost in the bottom of the first after Christian Helsel (Penn State) homered to left center and gave the Bombers a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third, the Bombers added on three more runs after Nick Podkul (Notre Dame) hit an RBI sac fly to put the Bombers up 2-0. Dean Miller (Riverside City College) reached first on an RBI single followed by Storm Joop (Indianapolis) who who added another RBI single to put the Bombers up 4-0.
Battle Creeks final run of the evening was added on in the bottom of the sixth after Eric Gilgenbach (Notre Dame) hit an RBI double that extended the Bombers lead to 5-0.
Holding the Chinooks scoreless through eight innings was Bombers starter Scott Sency (SVSU) who came into the game with a 3.43 ERA during his 60.1 innings pitched. Joining Sency through the scoreless innings were Bombers relief pitchers Cody Puckett (Middle Tennessee State) and Krystien Johnson-Battilana (Davenport).
Havekost went seven innings while giving up five runs and eight hits. Mitch Sewald (TCU) replaced Havekost on the mound where he faced one batter and was quickly substituted by left pitcher Nick Winter (UW-Milwaukee).
The Chinooks reached the board in the top of the eighth of off Bombers pitcher Austin Bueter (Northwestern Ohio). Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) led off with a walk and Nick Horvath (Florida) subbed for James Bleming (Lehigh) and roped a two out single. Both runners advanced to second and third on a passed ball which brought up Kurtis Brown (Richmond) who smacked a two run RBI double which brought the score to 5-2 Bombers.
Winter threw a strong inning and held the Bombers scoreless while only giving up one hit. Jonathan Cheshire (Davenport) held the Chinooks scoreless for the rest of the evening while helping secure the Bombers a 5-2 win and earned himself the save.
The Chinooks had a hard time bringing runs home but many hitters were solid at the plate including Matt Reardon (Florida Gulf Coast) who went 2-5 at the plate along with Tim DalPorto (Kent State) and Owen Miller (Illinois State) who went 2-4.
The Chinooks will return home Saturday night to take on the Green Bay Bullfrogs at 6:15.
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.
