Battle Creek, MI – Consistency, or lack thereof, has plagued the Chinooks throughout the first half of the season. One night after picking up the win over Battle Creek, Lakeshore fell behind early and never recovered, losing 5-3 to the Bombers.
The Chinooks have struggled to put together back-to-back games of winning baseball over the last couple of weeks. Not since their four game winning streak from June 3rd through June 6th have the Chinooks won consecutive games.
Battle Creek scored first for the second time in the series, but this time the Chinooks failed to make the comeback. Kyle Huckaby, in his first start for the Chinooks, was tagged for three runs in three and a third innings, before giving way to the bullpen.
Michael Brown brought home the first Bombers run with a RBI double in the third inning. Riley Tirotta doubled and scored Jalen Thomas in the fourth inning, who later scored on a Will Baker single off of Chinooks reliever Alex Stevenson. Zach Gartner drove home two more in the fifth inning to give the Bombers a 5-0 lead from which Lakeshore never recovered.
Bombers starting pitcher Kenuel Dominguez made his second start against the Chinooks, throwing four shutout innings. Dominguez has been very successful against Lakeshore allowing no runs over ten innings on the season.
The Chinooks still had plenty of scoring chances against Dominguez, but they stranded six runners, including four in scoring position.
Lakeshore finally scored in the fifth inning against Alex Kuster on a two-out, two-RBI single by Takahiro Yamada. Any further potential damages were avoided after Yamada was thrown out trying to take an extra base following a throw to the plate. The Chinooks added one more in the ninth after DJ Lee scored on a single by Andy Shadid to close the gap to 5-3. But Turner Buis struck out to end the game.
Dallas Beaver had another good day at the plate for Lakeshore, picking up a pair of hits including a double in the third inning. Over his last nine games, Beaver is batting .324 with four RBI. He has reached safely in all nine of those games.
Alex Stevenson made his second appearance in the series for the Chinooks, this time as a pitcher. He gave the Chinooks a solid three and a third innings out of the bullpen, allowing two runs. It was his second pitching appearance over the last three days after only pitching twice up to that point. While Stevenson has been more successful at the plate, batting .378 with 8 RBIs, he has given manager Travis Akre another reliable arm out of the bullpen.
The Chinooks remain on the road tomorrow as they head to Rockford for the start of a home-and-home against the Rivets. Nate Odahl will get the start for Lakeshore, as he looks to bounce back after a rough start against the Kalamazoo Growlers last weekend. First pitch tomorrow evening will be at 6:35 PM.
The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods 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 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). 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.
