Rockford, IL—The Lakeshore Chinooks fell to the Rockford Rivets 4-2 on Friday night. The loss moved the Chinooks to 30-27 on the season and 12-10 in the second half.

The Chinooks are now in 5th place in the second half division race, three games back of the first place Battle Creek Bombers.

The Chinooks are in 6th place in the overall division standings, ten games back of the first place Wisconsin Rapids Rafters. However, since the top four teams make the playoffs, they’re still well in the playoff hunt. They’re two games back of the fourth place Rockford Rivets who sit at 31-24.

Tonight’s game in Rockford was similar to last night, a battle of excellent pitching.

Strangely—or completely expected— it was also similar to every single game the Chinooks have played in Rockford. The Chinooks played it close, had a chance late but couldn't come through, and the game ended with fireworks.

Tonight, the Chinooks Austin Jones threw a strong six innings while giving up seven hits, four runs, two walks and striking out seven.

On the other side, the Rivets Alex Bacevicius was dazzling through 7.2 innings. The two runs he gave up were unearned, he walked only two and struck out six.

The Rivets offense got going early tonight. In the bottom of the first, Ryan Hutchinson led things off with a double and was driven in on a Bren Spillane single. Then, Spillane came around to score on a Neal Tyrell double. After one, it was 2-0 Rockford.

In the bottom of the third, the Rivets added one more. After a one-out double by Hunter Feduccia, Spillane singled him over to third, and Brian Klein knocked him in with a single of his own.

The Chinooks shrunk the Rivets lead in the top of the fourth. After Jacob Richardson reached on an error to start the inning, Daniel DeSimone doubled to set runners up on second and third for Tim DalPorto. DalPorto delivered with a RBI single, then one batter later, a Caleb Dean sac fly gave the Chinooks their second run of the night.

Rockford would strike back in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Anthony Forte lofted a high fly ball off the right field wall that turned into a triple, and Logan Michaels brought him home with a sac fly. After four innings, it was 4-2 Rivets.

That was all the scoring for the night, but that didn’t mean there was a lack of action. The top of the 8th inning was filled with drama.

To lead off the 8th, Rylan Thomas singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. At first, it seemed like he'd be stranded there, but after Tim DalPorto was hit by a pitch and advanced into scoring position via a wild pitch, Mitch Mallek found himself in a big spot.

With runners on second and third, Mallek watched an off speed pitch just miss off the outside corner and drew a walk to load the bases. At that very moment, Rockford accidentally launched a rapid succession of fireworks into the night sky.

Because of the smoke, the game was delayed before Drake Lubin hit with the bases loaded. It might’ve been the craziest—and worst timed—most in attendance had ever seen.

Unfortunately, Lubin struck out after an incredible eight pitch at-bat where he fouled off three tough pitches with two strikes.

That rally was the last the Chinooks could muster; they were retired relatively quickly in the bottom of the ninth.

Tomorrow, the Chinooks head to Wisconsin Rapids to face the South Division leading Rafters. Cyrillo Watson 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 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.