By Deann Davidson

Mequon, WI – The Chinooks returned home to face the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders in their final meeting of the season after falling to the Spiders 6-5 on Tuesday night.

Jackson Mandella took the mound for Lakeshore, a righthanded pitcher with an ERA of 6.17. Aaron Ball Jr. started for Fond du Lac who is a righty from Kankakee Community College with a 3.04 ERA and a record of 1-3 on the season for the Dock Spiders.

The Dock Spiders had a runner in scoring position early on after Sam Novitske dropped a leadoff single into left center and was advanced to second by a Zeb Anderson groundout. A pop out and a flyout ended the inning and stranded the runner at second. In the bottom of the inning, Mike Trautwein led off the inning with a fly ball that the left fielder dropped and allowed Trautwein to reach third. Cole Barr came to the plate and got an RBI-single to give Lakeshore an early lead.

In the second, the Chinooks’ defense was on display after Charlie Maxwell grounded a ball that Jake Thompson dove to reach and threw to Griffin Doersching, who made a great stretch from first to get he third out of the inning. Despite a two-out walk in the bottom of the inning, Lakeshore was unable to score.

In the third, neither team scored. In the fourth, Kellen Sarver hit a line drive to the right field wall for a double and then Aaron Anderson was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second with one out. Jack Pagliarini came in from the bullpen to take over for Mandella and got Tate Kolwyck to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. In the Chinooks’ half of the fourth, Andrew Neu relieved Ball and walked Doersching and Trenton Wallace to lead it off. Neu balked and both runners advanced. A two-out walk to Ronnie Sweeny III loaded the bases, but Trautwein grounded out to second to strand the runners.

In the fifth, Pagliarini sent Fond du Lac down in order with three groundouts. Barr was the first out of the inning. Thompson then singled to right and single from Daryl Myers put Thompson at third and Myers advanced to second on the throw. Trenton Wallace walked and the bases were loaded for Trent Bauer. Bauer pulled through for the Chinooks with a two-RBI double down the third base line. After the two runs scored, Wallace was caught in a rundown, ending the inning with the Chinooks up 3-0.

In the sixth, Otto Grimm reached base after being hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a groundout by Sam Novitske. A walk to Sarver put runners at first and second, but a grounder up the middle would get Anderson out at second to strand the runners. Nathan Aide grounded out to first, but Sweeny worked a walk to start the Chinooks’ half. Sweeny stole second with Trautwein at the plate, who then flew out to center. Barr worked a walk as well, but Sweeny was thrown out on a back pick to end the inning.

Bailey Vuylsteke relieved Pagliarini in the seventh and faced the minimum. Michael McBriar came in relief in the bottom of the seventh for Neu and got Thompson to groundout, Myers to strike out swining, and Doersching to fly out to right field.

In the eighth, a leadoff single followed by a walk gave the Dock Spiders a chance to come back, but Novitske grounded it to Barr who got the force at third and a throw to Doersching was just in time to get Novitske at first, leaving only a runner at second. Zeb Adreon came to the plate and struck out swinging. A leadoff single to center for Wallace did not produce anything for Lakeshore after a strikeout, a groundout, and a flyout.

Luke Sommerfeld came in to close the game for Lakeshore and got the first two batters to fly out to Trautwein in right field and ended the game with a strikeout.

This combined shutout win brings the Chinooks to 14-12 in the second half of the season. They are currently in second place and trail the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters by three games for the playoff spot. They travel to face the Rafters tomorrow night with first pitch at 7:05 pm.

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.