The Lakeshore Chinooks (1-0) opened up their 11th season with a victory on Monday night, defeating the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (0-1) 10-6 at Witter Field.

The Chinooks’ offense got off to a hot start as AJ Taylor hit a leadoff double followed by an RBI single from Nate Mieszkowski to take an early 1-0 lead. 

The Rafters looked to respond in the bottom of the first with one runner on, but Q Phillips IV had other plans, ending the inning by throwing out the runner trying to advance to third base.

In the bottom of the second, pitcher Cody Bahl found himself in trouble with two outs and two runners on. He ended up escaping the jam with a strikeout.

The Chinooks continued to add to their lead in the third inning. Taylor and Mieszkowski had back-to-back hits to put runners on first and third. Daniel Pacella grounded out and Adam Cootway hit a two out RBI single, putting the Chinooks up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the inning.

They continued to roll in the fifth inning, where the Chinooks scored three more runs on a sacrifice fly and two errors. They went into the bottom half of the inning leading 6-0.

The Rafters responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth due to an RBI single by Ty Johnson. However, that was the only run they would get as Bahl forced a flyout to end the inning. 

In the top of the sixth inning, the Chinooks tacked on another run with an RBI single by Josh Overbeek, marking his second RBI of the night.

Bahl struck out three in the bottom of the sixth inning, which was the end of his night. Nick Yeager came in to replace Bahl and got out of a bases loaded jam to stop the Rafters from scoring.

The Chinooks put up another crooked number in the top of the eighth with RBI singles from Cootway, Logan Gregorio and pinch hitter Jared Everson, putting them up 10-1.

Although the Rafters scored five more runs in the final two innings, they were unable to overcome the deficit as the Chinooks earned their first victory of the season.

They outhit the Rafters 17-9 and six different Chinooks earned at least two hits. Taylor went 4-for-6 on the night with two doubles while Mieszkowski went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Cootway led the team in RBIs with three.

Bahl (W, 1-0) got the win as he gave up only one earned run and five hits and struck out six in six innings of work.

The Chinooks will stay in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin as they face the Rafters again tomorrow night at 6:05 p.m. CST.