Mequon, Wisconsin – In the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, the Chinooks and Green Bay Rockers had another back-and-forth battle. With the two teams competing for the final playoff spot of the Great Lakes West division, both offenses got it going after slow starts. The Chinooks had Mitch Alba (1-1, 5.40 ERA) on the mound to start and was able to shut down the Rockers offense for the first two innings. Will Semb (4-5, 5.48 ERA) pitched a bit better for the Rockers, but had a shaky first inning as he allowed two infield singles. Semb managed to get out of that jam and followed with a 3 up and 3 down 2nd inning.

Heading into the 3rd, Alba didn’t have his stuff compared to his first two innings pitched. Tristin Garcia was a man on a mission in the game for the Rockers offense. An RBI single by Garcia and a Chinooks error allowed the Rockers to take a 2-0 lead. Alba lost his command with back-to-back walks to give the Rockers bases loaded. Luke Ballweg capitalized with a 2-RBI single that increased the Rockers lead to 4-0. The Chinooks offense made sure the game wasn’t over as they started the comeback in the bottom of the 4th.

Caden Kaiser creamed a single up the middle and used his speed to steal 2nd. Nathan Aide continued his impressive start since being acquired with a single to get Kaiser over to 3rd. A Rockers wild pitch was enough for Kaiser to score and give the Chinooks their first run. Ty Olejnik drove in his first run as Chinook on a single. The RBI single cut the Rockers lead down to 4-2. The offensive momentum for the Chinooks continued into the bottom of the 5th. Tony Livermore leadoff the inning with an easy triple. Another extra-base hit and RBI double by Matt Deprey helped the Chinooks only trail by 1.

Nathan Aide had another single, but this time with an RBI that tied the game 4-4. Will Semb’s day on the mound was done after struggling in his final two innings. Another run on the board was delivered for the Chinooks. Stephen Hrustich almost hit a homer, but just missed by a couple of feet. An RBI double to the warning track though helped give the Chinooks their first lead of the game at 5-4. The Rockers would take the lead back almost immediately in the next half inning. Justin Simpson got a bases-loaded walk and Tristin Garcia hit a sac fly as the Rockers were up by 1 again.

Not much action took place in the 7th, but Garcia came back up to the plate in the top of the 8th. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Tristin Garcia smoked a home run above the Right-Center Field wall at Moonlight Graham Field at Kapco Park. Garcia led the Rockers offense with five RBIs. The deflating 3-run homer pretty much took the Chinooks out of the game. Michael Seegers hit the last RBI in the bottom of the 8th to get it to a 9-6 ball game.

In the bottom of the 9th, Nathan Aide hit a double that should’ve scored another run. However, the home plate umpire got in the way of Caden Kaiser as he was running toward home plate. Kaiser had to go back to 3rd base and the Chinooks couldn’t get any more runs. A tough loss in the first game of the doubleheader drops the Chinooks second-half record to 10-8. The Chinooks are a game back of the Rockers and drop to 4th place in the Great Lakes West standings. Game 2 of the doubleheader continues at Moonlight Graham Field at Kapco Park. First pitch is at 6:35pm.