Rockford, IL—The Lakeshore Chinooks fell to the Rockford Rivets 4-2 on Thursday night. The loss dropped the Chinooks to 19-18 on the season and 1-1 in the second half. 

This game was eerily similar to the Chinooks first appearance in Rockford, where they fell 3-2, Alec Marsh was the losing pitcher, and the 1-7 hitters could only muster a combined five hits in 26 plus at-bats. 

Again, tonight, the team lost a low-scoring affair, Marsh was the losing pitcher, and the 1-7 hitters were 5-28. 

However, the one significant change was Marsh’s performance. The first time in Rockford, Marsh only lasted 0.2 innings in relief and surrendered three runs. This time, he produced a solid five innings by giving up only two hits, 3 earned runs and striking out 5. 

“It’s awesome just because I’m thankful they gave me the start,” Marsh said postgame. “I had a mindset of coming back here and trying to put this team in the dirt. Sucks we came out with a loss, but good things for me. Good improvement. I’m gonna build from there.”

The only thing that plagued Marsh tonight, and ultimately prevented him from earning a win, was his walk count. He gave six free passes to 6 Rivets—including two in the top of the sixth—that both came around to score. 

“I gotta work on getting the walk count down,” he said. “I gotta not get so frustrated with calls that I think are strikes. Next outing, if I could keep the walks down, I could head into the 8th innings. I gave up two hits in 6 innings. They weren't hitting me.”

As for the offense, they couldn't provide the same oomph that bolstered them to a 21-6 win in last night. 

All the Chinook scoring came in the sixth inning, and both runs were to the credit of Caleb Dean. With one out in the inning, Owen Miller, fresh of his two cycles in three games performance, tattooed a double into left field and was quickly knocked in by a Caleb Dean RBI double. 

Then, Daniel DeSimone, in pinch-hit duty, came through with a single that propelled the speedy Dean into score from second. 

After the DeSimone RBI, the Chinooks carried a 2-1 into the bottom of the sixth, but four walks from Marsh and Luke Sommerfeld in relief plated three runs for the Rivets and gave them a 4-2 lead heading into the seventh that carried through to the ninth. 

One interesting note. While facing the Rivets at Kapco Park, the Chinooks outscored them 37-7 in just two games. But, in their two games at Rockford, were outscored 7-4. 

One standout player for the recapChinooks was Joe Heineman. The righty reliever from Baylor threw two scoreless innings while collecting four strikeouts and forcing nine whiffs. 

The Chinooks head back to home tomorrow for a 6:35 start against the best team in the Northwoods League, the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters. Austin Jones, who threw five shutout innings in his start, gets the call on the mound. 

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.