Green Bay, WI— The Lakeshore Chinooks fell to the Green Bay Bullfrogs 6-5 on Sunday afternoon. The loss dropped the Chinooks to 25-22 on the season and 7-5 in the second half.
Currently, the Chinooks are tied for second place in the South Division with the Madison Mallards and Rockford Rivets and are 0.5 games back of the first place Wisconsin Rapids Rafters.
In the overall standings, the Chinooks are in fifth place, one game back of the fourth place Mallards. The top four teams from each division make the playoffs.
Today was the last game before the three-day All-Star break. All-Star festivities include a Home Run Derby and All-Star game, will be held in Wausau, Wisconsin. The Chinooks have four all-stars this summer, Matthew Mika, Jacob Richardson, Nick Gatewood and Parker Sanburn
Mika, Richardson, and Gatewood will all be in attendance on July 18th, but Sanburn, who earlier this week signed a professional contract with the Texas Rangers, will not.
For the players not heading to Wausau, it’ll be a relaxing three days after playing almost every day since late May.
“It was a grind for sure,” said Caleb Dean, one of the few players to be on the Chinooks since day one. “When you’re playing every day, you’re kind of on auto-pilot in routine. It’ll be nice to change it up a little bit, and I think it’ll make the next few weeks a lot easier to go through.”
Today’s game against the Bullfrogs was a back and forth affair.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Bullfrogs struck first when Alex Peter laced a RBI single to score Mikey Fila and grab a 1-0 lead over Chinook starter Takoda Metoxen.
The score held until the fourth inning, when Tim Dalporto, following a Daniel DeSimone double, launched sac fly to deep center that brought home Jack Dunn and tied things at 1.
But, the Bullfrogs hopped right back in the bottom of the fourth. Riley Smith knocked a single that brought around Mikey Fila and made it 2-1 Bullfrogs.
Lakeshore tied things back up in the sixth. Nick Gatewood, with two outs, came through with a RBI single that drove in Drake Lubin, who doubled to lead-off the inning.
Again, in the bottom of the sixth, the Bullfrogs grabbed the lead right back. Zack Plunkett, on the first pitch of the inning, destroyed a Marshall Oetting fastball for his third home run of the summer.
Almost as expected, the Chinooks scored two in the top of the seventh to take their first lead of the game. Drake Lubin and Matthew Mika drew consecutive bases loaded walks to make it 4-3 Chinooks.
The lead only lasted 21 pitches. The Bullfrogs Tanner Poole smacked a line drive that turned into a run scoring triple to tie things up at four a piece.
The Frogs broke things open in the bottom of the eighth. Four hits in a row to lead off the innings, three surrendered by Nick Camp and one by Rylan Thomas, scored two runs and gave the Bullfrogs a 6-4 lead.
In the top of the ninth, the Chinooks made a comeback effort speared by a Drake Lubin leadoff single and Nick Gatewood RBI single, but Jacob Richardson, last night’s hero, couldn't repeat his walk-off home run performance. Today, his ninth inning, two-out at-bat ended on a softly hit ground ball to the second baseman.
Despite the loss, the Chinooks remain in a good place heading into post-All-Star break action.
We’ve come a long way since [the start of the season],” Dean said. “We all kind of know each other a lot better now, so I think that’s helping us play better defense and get in a grove. So, I’m excited. “
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 180 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.
