Mequon, WI- The Lakeshore Chinooks (15-12) defeated the Kenosha Kingfish 5-2 on Thursday night, as the return of Brian Sobieski (Davenport) helped spark the Lakeshore offense in the win.
The man of the night, Brian Sobieski, got his first opportunity in the bottom of the 2nd inning, as he stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. Sobieski wasted no time, as he smacked a double that scored Jacob Richardson (Southern Arkansas) and Tim DalPorto (Kent State), as Lakeshore jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
Jack Dunn (Northwestern) tacked on another pair of runs in the bottom of the 4th on his first home run of the summer. The homer from Dunn was a two-run shot that was launched over the left-field patio, as the Chinooks took a 4-0 lead.
The next man up for Lakeshore was Brian Sobieski, who picked up right where he left off in the 2nd inning. Sobieski followed up Dunn with a homer of his own, as the two Chinooks went back-to-back in the bottom of the 4th.
The Kingfish cracked the scoreboard in the top of the 8th on an RBI groundout off the bat of Tyler Paulsen, scoring Joe Campagna for Kenosha’s first tally of the game.
Kenosha tacked on its second run of the night on an Austin Bodrato sacrifice fly that brought home Mike Madej, cutting the Chinooks’ lead to three.
Lakeshore’s Alec Marsh (Arizona State) was phenomenal once again, shutting out the Kingfish over six innings, surrendering just one hit and one walk to go along with six strikeouts.
Over his last four starts, Marsh has pitched to a 0.30 ERA, allowing just one earned run in 30 innings of work.
More importantly, Marsh has kept his team in every game, going at least six innings in every one of his last four starts.
“It’s very important,” said Marsh. “I want us to make the playoffs, so I’m giving it my all. I felt like I could’ve went all the way again tonight. I’m just trying to give the team as much as I can with what I have to work with.”
After his last start, the complete-game gem, Marsh said he didn’t have all his pitches working, but said he felt much better tonight. “I was comfortable with all my pitches today. I really worked on throwing the changeup a little bit more,” said Marsh. “Just working on getting hitters off-balance with different types of pitches.”
Marsh, although a starter at Arizona State, came out of the Lakeshore bullpen earlier in the summer, but has made the transition from reliever to starter very smooth. “It’s starting to get easy for me and it’s starting to get fun. Just trying to get us some wins.”
Not only was Alec Marsh great on the hill, but recently-signed Brian Sobieski had himself a memorable first game back.
In his first game back with the team, Sobieski went 3-4 with a home run and 3 RBI, proving to Nook Nation that he is here to stay.
The Lakeshore Chinooks (15-12) will travel to Kenosha to take on the Kingfish on Friday night, as Austin Jones (UW-Whitewater) gets the start for the Chinooks to try and sweep the 2-game set against Kenosha.
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.
