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Published On: August 14th, 2016

Mequon, WI – Your Lakeshore Chinooks returned to Kapco Park Saturday night where they took on the Green Bay Bullfrogs for their last home game of the regular season. After a night of early run scoring and solid pitching, the Chinooks earned themselves a 5-3 win over the Bullfrogs.

The Chinooks got an early jump off of Bullfrogs starter Blake Rutherford (St. Norbert College) who made his second start on the year and came into the game with a 3.64 ERA.    

In the bottom of the first, Zac Taylor (Houston) led off with a single to left and stole second. Joe Duncan (Eastern Illinois) smacked an RBI single to right center and gave the Chinooks an early 1-0 lead. A wild pitch later advanced Duncan to second and reached third on a groundout. Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) added on another run after he roped an RBI single into the left center field gap to put the Chinooks up 2-0.

Making his third start on the year was Chinooks lefty pitcher Nick Lackney (Minnesota) who came into the game with a 2.81 ERA and 25 strikeouts in his 32 innings of work.  

The Bullfrogs made a quick comeback in the top of the second after Brad Hamilton (Kent State) and Brian Lees (Southeast Missouri State) both hit back-to-back singles. Hamilton then reached home off a wild pitch and Lees crossed home plate on a ground out that tied the game up at 2 a piece.

In the bottom of the third, Owen Miller (Illinois State) reached on a fielder’s choice followed by Kurtis Brown (Richmond) who bombed a two out RBI double to right center that put the Chinooks ahead 3-2.

The runs continued in the bottom of the fourth after James Bleming (Lehigh) dropped one down in front of the center fielder for a lead off single. Nick Horvath (Florida) brought Bleming home after he shot a hard hit ball to right and increased the Chinooks lead to 4-2. Tim DalPorto (Kent State) kept the runs going after he rocked a two out RBI double and gave the Chinooks a solid 5-2 lead.

The Bullfrogs saw enough from start Blake Rutherford after he went 3.2 innings and gave up 5 runs. Taking the mound in the bottom of the fourth with two outs was Dominick Golubiewski (Madison College) who got out of the remainder of the inning clean.

Scoring was quiet for both teams until the top of the eighth when Quincy Nieporte (Florida State) hit a two out RBI single and brought the score to 5-3 Chinooks.

After going 7.2 innings while giving up 3 runs and racking up 3 strikeouts, Lackney was taken out and replaced on the mound by Luke Sommerfeld (Saint Louis) who pitched the remainder of the eighth and got out of the inning clean.

Manager Eddy Morgan went to the bullpen in the top of the ninth and brought in Chinooks relief pitcher Horvath, who closed the door on the Bullfrogs and secured the Chinooks a win and earned himself the save.

Lackney earned himself the win and was backed up by some impressive hitting by Taylor who went 2-3 at the plate along with DalPorto who went 2-4.

The Chinooks hit the road Sunday to take on the Bullfrogs in Green Bay for game two of the series at 4:05 pm.

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.