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Published On: June 29th, 2017

 

Wausau, WI-The Lakeshore Chinooks defeated the Wisconsin Woodchucks 11-7 to improve to 14-15 on the season. The win also completed a two-game sweep of the Woodchucks that saw the Chinooks outscore Wisconsin 28-16 and outhit them 33-18. 

After yesterday’s crazy, nine-run comeback rollercoaster, it would’ve been nice for the Chinooks to have a one-sided baseball game. But with this team, especially lately, crazy seems to be the new normal. 

Over the past four games, Lakeshore has scored 19 runs in the eighth and ninth innings combined and has come back from deficits of 9, 3, and 2 runs.

This game was no exception. The Chinooks scored five in the eighth and one in the ninth to recover from a two-run deficit.  

Tonight’s game started relatively benign. In the first inning, Chinooks starter, Zach Spears, got into some trouble after a one-out single paired with a stolen base, wild pitch, and subsequent RBI single to make it 1-0 Woodchucks, but he settled down after that by tossing four straight shutout innings. 

On the other side of the ball, the Chinooks offense got underway in the third inning when a Matthew Mika leadoff single and walks by Joe Duncan and Rylan Thomas set the table for Nick Gatewood. And, Gatewood didn't leave any leftovers. 

The lefty slugger has been feasting as of late. Over his last four games, he’s registered 9 RBI, and on the season, he has a team-high 23. Overall, that puts him 8 off the league high RBI mark of 31 held by Derek Bangert, but Bangert has played in seven more games. 

The Chinooks tallied two more in the fifth when back to back singles by Gatewood and Jacob Richardson, and a walk by Daniel DeSimone loaded the bases from TJ Raguse. Raguse came through by smoking a single past the shortstop that allowed Gatewood to score. Then, Jack Dunn produced a RBI fielder’s choice to score Richardson and make it 5-1 Chinooks after five innings. 

The lead seemed pretty comfortable, but then the Chinook defense exploded. 

In the bottom of the sixth, Woodchuck clean-up hitter, Byrile Ware, led off with a homer launched deep over the left field fence. Then, three singles, a walk and two more earned runs surrendered by Zach Spears removed him from the game. 

Spears’ final line was 5.1 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. 

Heading into the seventh, the Chinooks still held a 5-4 lead, but Nick Campe struggled and allowed the Woodchucks to score three more. So, it was 7-5 Woodchucks heading into the eighth. 

That’s when the late-inning magic arrived. Joe Duncan smoked a two-run homer— his first of the summer— to tie things up, and last night’s hero, Daniel DeSimone came through with a two-RBI single of his own. Finally, Raguse brought home DeSimone to make it 10-7 after eight innings. 

The Chinooks tacked on one more error-aided run in the ninth before Parker Sanburn closed the door the 11-7 win and completed a two-game sweep of the Woodchucks. 

The Chinooks are back in action tomorrow night as they head back home to take on the Kalamazoo Growlers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 at Kapco with Sam Lund as the listed starter. 

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lakeshorechinooks.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.