After last night’s win that ended a five-game skid, the Lakeshore Chinooks (10-16) followed it up with another impressive performance in tonight’s 8-6 win against the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders (9-18) on Saturday night in front of a great crowd at Moonlight Graham Field.
The Chinooks would get out to an early lead in this one, something they have struggled to do on this home stand. Josh Overbeek smacked a monster double that hit the top of the fence in right. Cootway followed with an RBI single up the middle to put Lakeshore in front, 1-0.
The Dock Spiders threatened to respond in the third after Peterson led things off with a leadoff single and advanced to second on a stolen base. However, a line-drive double play ball ended the threat.
Grimes continued his hot bat as of late with a leadoff double in the bottom of the third, his second hit of the game. Avery Owusu-Asiedu then followed Grimes with a double of his own to give the Chinooks a 2-0 lead. Lakeshore was not done in the inning as Overbeek brought home another run on a two-out RBI single, making it 3-0 in favor of the Chinooks.
“Hitting wise you can’t single out one guy. Through the entirety of the season they’ve done a good job of creating pressure and knowing what it is,” said field manager Trevor Cho said.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Dock Spiders would have their answer. Connor Cooney delivered a clutch two-out, two-RBI single to make it a 3-2 ballgame.
The Chinooks would respond in their half of the fifth. The first two batters would reach courtesy of an error and a walk. A sac fly from Brady Counsell increased the Chinook lead to 4-2, and gave them a little more cushion to work with.
Something the Chinooks did a really good job of tonight is getting leadoff guys on base, and then capitalizing. Cootway started off the bottom of the sixth with a single to left and proceeded to steal second. Mason Neville, the Arkansas Razorback, made his debut with the Chinooks and he roped an RBI double to center, scoring Cootway and extending the Lakeshore lead to 5-2.
The hits kept coming and coming from the Chinooks. Singles from Avery Owusu-Asiedu and Cody Kelly started things off in the bottom of the seventh. Brady Counsell delivered again with runners in scoring position, except this time it was a two-RBI double. Josh Overbeek kept the train moving with an RBI double of his own to essentially put this one out of reach at 8-2.
The Dock Spiders wouldn’t go down without a fight in this one as Stump hit a batter with the bases loaded and his night was done with the score at 8-3. James Reese came into relieve Stump with the bases loaded and nobody out. Fond du Lac would tack on another on a double play fielder’s choice, but that is all they could do and the score was 8-4.
Fond du Lac put pressure on the Chinooks again in the ninth. A bases loaded walk made it an 8-5 game with one-out. Matthew Mueller entered the game with one out and the bases loaded. Luke Novitske brought in another run for the Dock Spiders on a sac fly. That would not be enough as the Chinooks would get the final out and win their second-straight game.
Lakeshore outhit the Dock Spiders 15-6, and every Chinook player had a hit in this game. Josh Overbeek led the way, going 3-for-4 with three hits and two RBI.
Nick Yeager (1-1) got the start for Lakeshore and he shut down this Dock Spider lineup. Yeager went six strong innings, allowing just two runs on four hits.
“I think pitching wise we got a really good one from Yeager and Mueller came in there at the end. To me, we have all the confidence in the world in them, so I thought pitching did a really good job.”
The Chinooks pick up their tenth win of the season and will go for the sweep tomorrow in Fond du Lac. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. CST.
