Kenosha, WI—The Lakeshore Chinooks used extra innings to defeat the Kenosha Kingfish 2-1 on Friday night. The win moved the Chinooks to 34-29 and officially into the fourth and final playoff spot, one game ahead of the 33-30 Kenosha Kingfish.
From the start, this game felt like it was going the way of the Kingfish. In the first inning, Chinooks starter Austin Jones walked Mike Madej, then Madej advanced to third on an unfortunate throwing error by Chinooks catcher, Brian Sobieski. It wasn’t a bad throw. Instead, it bounced off the foot of Madej and ricocheted into the outfield.
A Jack Yalowitz RBI single drove in Madej and gave the Kingfish an early 1-0 lead.
But, it ended up being a bevy of Kingfish errors that decided this game.
Before the drama of the late innings, this game was all about pitching. Yalowitz’s single was the only offense from either side until the 9th inning.
Kingfish starter, Zach Stromberg, after working out of some early jams, looked dominant through his six innings. He only gave up four hits, walked 2, and struck out a Kingfish season high ten batters.
The Chinooks put up their biggest threat against Stromberg in the second inning. After Brian Sobieski was hit by a pitch, Jack Dunn singled, and Mitch Mallek walked to load the bases, the Chinooks had Charley Hesse, Drake Lubin and Joe Duncan coming up for a chance to take an early lead. But, Stromberg stuck all three out—Lubin and Duncan swinging—to get out the jam unscathed.
From there, Stromberg was untouchable. He retired 10 of the last 11 he faced, and the only runner came via an uncharacteristic Mitch Mallek four-pitch walk.
For the Chinooks, Austin Jones was his typical self. Through 6.1 strong innings, he only allowed four hits, two walks, and one unearned run while striking out three.
Jones retired 12 of the last 15 hitters he faced and left the game after giving up a double to Derek Bangert in the top of the 7th.
Things finally got interesting in the 9th.
After a day full of strikeouts—seven looking—and leaving eight runners on base, the Chinooks offense finally had some luck.
Leading off the top of the ninth, Sobieski chopped a grounder down the third base line that ate up the Kingfish third baseman and allowed Sobieski to advance to second. After a Jack Dunn strikeout, Mitch Mallek grounded out to first base—a very productive out that allowed Connor Kimple, pinch running for Sobieski, to advance to third—to put the game on the line for the Chinooks all-star, Matthew Mika, who came in to pinch hit for Hessey.
On a 1-0 count, Mika dribbled a grounder in front of the mound that the Kingfish closer, Billy McKay misplayed. His errant throw allowed Kimple to score and send the game to the bottom of the ninth.
Kenosha almost walked things off in the bottom of the ninth, they loaded the bases, but Joe Heineman got Connor Moroder to fly out to Drake Lubin in centerfield to keep things at one a piece.
In the top of the 10th, the Chinooks offense came through again, this time in a game-winning fashion.
Rylan Thomas got things going with a lead-off double, Daniel DeSimone singled him over to third, and Nick Pierce hit an almost identical to Mika dribbler that McKay again misplayed.
Instead of throwing home, he casually threw to first and allowed Thomas to score.
Joe Heineman earned the win in the 10th as he shut down Kenosha 1-2-3 to seal the deal.
The Chinooks head to Madison tomorrow to take on the Mallards, who find themselves just a game back of the Chinooks for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Cyrillo Watson gets the start for first pitch at 6:35
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.
