By Deann Davidson

Wausau, WI – The Chinooks traveled to face the Wisconsin Woodchucks after splitting a series with the Bombers after an impressive 12-3 win in the second game of the series. Lakeshore’s offense was just as powerful in the first game of the series against the Woodchucks.

The first three Chinook batters singled, loaded the bases with no outs for Nathan Aide. Aide his a sacrifice fly to right field and Cole Barr scored the first run of the game. With Jake Thompson batting, a passed ball allowed Mike Trautwein and Daryl Myers to advance to second and third. With two outs, Ronnie Sweeny III hit and RBI-single to right field and scored Myers and Trautwein to make it a 3-0 game. The Woodchucks answered with their first two batters reaching on singles to put runners at the corners. Adam Frank stole second with Murray batting, but Murray struck out swinging as did the next batter. Javier Rosario came to the plate for Wiscosnin and delivered with a single to left that scored Brandon Seltzer from third and put runners on the corners once again. Two more RBI-singles tied the game at three after one inning of play.

Despite having runners on the bases, neither team scored in the second or third innings. In the top of the fourth, Trenton Wallace led off with a double to right field and Justin Olson followed with a two-run homer to give the Chinooks a 5-3 lead. With one out, Myers earned a walk and advanced to second on an infield single from Trautwein. Aide followed suit with a single to load the bases. Thompson came to the plate and hit the third Chinook single in a row to score both Myers and Trautwein to make it 7-3. With two outs and runners at first and third, Gunnar Hellstrom singled and Aide scored to give the Chinooks a five-run lead over the Woodchucks. In the bottom of the fourth, Jarod Large relieved Jim Jarecki and only gave up a two-out double.

Lakeshore failed to score in the fifth and Wisconsin took advantage. The first three batters reached on a single to left and back-to-back walks. A double from Rosario drove in two runs and shrank the Chinooks’ lead to two. Another RBI made it 8-6.

Lakeshore added to their lead in the sixth. Trautwein earned a leadoff walk on four pitches and with one out, he advanced to third on a Thompson double. This prompted the Woodchucks to bring in reliever Nick Vanderhoef who issued a walk to the first batter he faced to load the bases with one out. Hellstrom hit a sacrifice fly to center and Tratwein scored to allow the Chinooks to lead 9-6. The Woodchucks scored in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff home run from Seltzer to bring them within two runs of the Chinooks.

The Woodchucks did not score for the rest of the game, but the Chinooks tacked on another run in the top of the ninth on an Olson home run, his second of the game to give Lakeshore a 10-7 lead.

Olson was the Chinooks’ star of the game, going 2-4 with two home runs and a walk. He is the second Chinook in as many games to have a multi-homer game.

This win brings Lakeshore to 3-5 in the second half of the season. They will play the second game of the series tomorrow night at 6:35pm.

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 200 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.