By Deann Davidson

Kenosha, WI – The Chinooks faced the Kenosha Kingfish and defeated them with a final score of 6-3. Jake Carlson, a righty from Northwestern Ohio, started for Lakeshore, facing Caleb Larson of the Kingfish.

Despite putting runners on the bases in each of the first two innings, the Chinooks were unable to capitalize and score. The Lakeshore defense was able to keep the Kingfish from crossing the plate and the score was 0-0 going into the third inning.

In the top of the third, Cole Barr worked a one-out walk and advanced to second on a groundout from Daryl Myers. A single from Nathan Aide gave Lakeshore runners at the corners with two outs. An RBI-single from Mike Trautwein brought Barr home and the Chinooks had a 1-0 lead over Kenosha.

The Chinooks added another run in the fourth inning. David Dunn led off with a single and advanced to second when Ronnie Sweeny III reached on an error by the third baseman. Dunn advanced to third on a wild pitch with Gunner Hellstrom batting and scored when Hellstrom hit into a double play, giving Lakeshore a two-run lead. In the bottom of the inning, Carlson gave up a leadoff walk and with one out, issued another walk, putting runners on first and second. Carlson then hit the next batter with a pitch to load the bases and followed with another walk with nowhere to put the runner, cutting the Chinooks’ lead to one.

Lakeshore was unable to increase their lead in the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, Jim Jarecki relieved Carlson and gave up a leadoff walk followed by a double, but the Chinooks got the leadoff man for the first out. Jarecki then struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, Dunn singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch with Sweeny batting. Sweeny then hit an RBI-double, scoring Dunn and giving Lakeshore a two-run lead for the second time in the game. The Kingfish went down in order and the Chinooks led 3-1.

Myers worked a one-out walk in the top of the seventh and with Aide batting, Kenosha brought in reliever Jon-Anthony Caban who walked Aide, giving the Chinooks runners at first and second. With Trautwein batting, Myers and Aide stole third and second respectively. Trautwein walked to load the bases for Jake Thompson. A passed ball scored Myers to make it 4-1. In the bottom of the seventh, an error by Myers at shortstop allowed the Kingfish to have a runner at first with one out. The Chinooks brought in reliever Bailey Vuylsteke for Jarecki. A wild pitch allowed Mitchell Buban at first to advance to second and then reach to third on a putout by Brenden Hueth. A two-out RBI-single by Mike Jarvis brought Buban across the plate for Kenosha’s second run of the game. Roberto Peña followed with an RBI-double and Jarvis scored to make it a 4-3 ballgame.

To start the eighth inning, the Kingfish brought in Tanner Fallon to relieve Caban. Fallon gave up a leadoff single to Dunn who advanced on a wild pitch. Sweeny walked to put runners at first and second for the Chinooks. With Hellstrom batting, Dunn took third on another wild pitch and scored on Hellstrom’s groundout to shortstop to make it 5-3. Kenosha did not score in the bottom of the inning.

In the ninth, Myers led off with a triple. Trautwein reached first on a one-out walk and a double from Thompson scored Myers, giving the Chinooks a three-run lead that was too much for the Kingfish to overcome in the bottom of the ninth inning when Will Klein came in for the save, striking out two.

Jim Jarecki was the winning pitcher and Klein got the save for Lakeshore. Myers was 2-2-2 on the night with 3 walks and Dunn was 3-5 on the night. This win brings the Chinooks to 5-6 in the second half of the season. They return home tomorrow to face the Kingfish once again at 5:05pm.

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.