The Lakeshore Chinooks (3-3) had their second battle with the Madison Mallards (3-3) on Saturday night and defeated them 7-3 at Moonlight Graham Field. The Chinooks have now won two in a row, gaining ground in the Great Lakes West division early in the 2023 season. 

Colin Dailey got the start for the Chinooks, allowing zero earned runs and no hits on the day in three innings of work. Dailey started off hot, striking out five of his first seven batters faced. 

“It was kind of a bullpen situation day for us. We knew we were going to get two or three innings out of Dailey. [We] ended up getting three, that was great, “ Lakeshore field manager Trevor Cho said.

The Chinooks’ scoring started in the bottom of the third inning. Luke Wroblewski would get things started with a single to shallow center field and would steal second to get into scoring position.

With two outs, Nate Mieszkowski hit a single, allowing Wroblewski to put the Chinooks ahead 1-0. Mieszkowski would steal second, marking two stolen bases in the inning. 

“I try to give the guys a good idea of the environment we’re going into,’ Cho said. “I wouldn’t say I told the guys to look for bags early… I put some steal signs just based on that he hadn’t picked over and he (Tommy Meyer) was a little bit slow to home plate.”

In the fifth inning, the Mallards tied the game up when Canyon Brown scored off an RBI single by Korbyn Dickerson.. 

After scoring another run in the sixth inning, the Mallards were ahead 2-1 over Lakeshore until the Chinooks would pour in three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

Will Peterson, Madison’s reliever, allowed Mieszkowski to reach first base via walk. Josh Overbeek would then single, which put Mieszkowski into scoring position. With two runners aboard and no outs, Peterson walked Daniel Pacella to load the bases. Peterson then hit Cody Kelly, which advanced the runners and tied up the game.

At this point, Nicholas Argento replaced Peterson on the mound to try to find a way out of the jam. With runners on all three bases, Andy Nelson was hit by a pitch, which scored another run and kept the bases loaded. Logan Gregorio then hit a sac fly that  scored Pacella, and the Chinooks went into the seventh inning leading 4-2.

The Chinooks went on to score one more run in the bottom of the seventh inning to add on to their lead off an RBI fielder’s choice by Josh Overbeek. That would be enough for Lakeshore to sweep Madison and grab its first series of the season.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve had a ton of success so far. You just have to take it game by game,” Cho said.

The Chinooks will look to extend their winning streak against the Green Bay Rockers tomorrow at 1:05 p.m CST at Moonlight Graham Field.