The Chinooks squared off against the Fond Du Lac Dock Spiders in game one of a double header and lost by a score of 6-5. Entering the game Lakeshore is coming off two road games against the Green Bay Rockers where they were beaten in both games.

Matthew Mueller got the start today on the mound for the Chinooks. The Gonzaga commit started the day off striking out the first two batters he saw. With two outs away, Dock Spiders Left Fielder Travis Strickler hit a ground ball to second baseman Brady Counsell but the off-balanced throw could not be completed on time, putting the runner on first. Teddy Deters advanced Strickler with a single and one more single by Brady Katterhagen would score the first run of the day making the score 1-0 Doc Spiders. Although Fond Du Lac would go on to load the bases, the Chinooks managed to get out of the inning only down a run.

The Dock Spiders got right back to work in the top of the second inning. Seth Sweet-Chick got on base with a walk and a sac bunt advanced him to second. Sweet-Chick continued to work himself around the bases as he stole third and would be driven in by Jared Heinzen making the Dock Spiders lead 2-0. With two outs, the Doc Spiders managed to tack on another two runs to make it 4-0 and with six hits through two innings.

The Dock Spiders showed no sign of slowing down as in the top of the third Graiden West got things started with a double to Right Field. West stole third base and would eventually score off an error. After three innings, the Dock Spiders stole a total of four bases and led 5-0 going into the bottom of the third

Mueller would be replaced on the mound by reliever DJ Hess. It was a short day for Mueller who threw 79 pitches, allowing four earned runs, three walks, and five strikeouts. It was Hess who was able to slow the Dock Spiders who had scored in each of the three prior innings. Although the Dock Spiders put pressure on Hess in the top of the fifth. Fond Du Lac would go scoreless against Hess in four of five total innings that Hess pitched

Through five innings, the Chinooks could not get much going on offense. Lakeshore was swinging the bat but could not get the ball down in the gaps of the Dock Spiders defense. However, the Chinooks managed to put up a run in the sixth to cut the lead to 5-1.The bottom half of the inning started with a Gabe Roessler strikeout for out number one. Hunter Grimes was next up and walked putting a runner on first. Grimes advanced to second due to a single by Avery Owusu-Asiedu and the Chinooks had runners on first and second with one out. Brady Counsell doubled to left field, scoring Grimes putting the first Chinooks run on the board.

Hess continued to stall the Dock Spiders offense in the top of the seventh and entering the bottom of the seventh, the score remained 5-1 in favor of Fond Du Lac. The Chinooks did manage to load the bases but could capitalize on the opportunity.

All hope was not lost though as the Chinooks managed to keep fighting determined to change this game around. On the mound for the Dock spiders in the bottom of the eighth was Logan Eisenbarth. Joey Spence got the inning started with a walk which would be followed by Brady Counsell reaching first off an error. The Dock Spiders got out number one of the inning with a fielder’s choice where they chose to stop Spence from advancing to third and allowed Josh Overbeek to reach first. Cody Kelley stepped up to the plate, hitting a double that scored Counsell from second and Overbeek from first. With the score now 6-3, Cody Kelley was on second and the Dock Spiders only had one out. The Chinooks would score two more runs in the inning. Jared Everson singled which advanced Kelley to third. Everson would be replaced by Drew Townsend as a pinch runner at first. Now, with Kelley on third and Townsend at first Nate Mieszkowski hit a single. Kelley reached home safely off an error and the score was now 6-4. The last run of the inning came off a sac fly by Roessler that scored Townsend making the score 6-5.

The bottom of the ninth started with the Chinooks down, 6-5. Although the Chinooks started off with two singles. The Dock Spiders would end the game with three consecutive putouts. Despite the Chinooks fighting back to make it a close game, too many mistakes added up which led to the result being a loss. 

“I think we deserved that result, we just played really badly,” said Field Manager, Trevor Cho.  “That’s kind the baseball we’ve been playing,” added Cho.