Fond du Lac, WI – As soon as the first pitch to Griffin Cameron came out of Jonah Montes’ hand tonight the countdown was on, 54 outs from the end of the 2024 season for both the Lakeshore Chinooks (26-43) and the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders (29-40) who both finished at the bottom of the Great Lakes West division.

A month that hasn’t shown the best performances for the Chinooks, they aimed to finish on a high with a win behind the arm of newly committed righty, Arthur Libeau. Libeau will be playing college baseball at Concordia University Wisconsin, where home games are played for Lakeshore.

For the pitchers, the game started strong with one combined hit through two innings, but after that, the bases were filled with traffic, and home plate was worn out.

The offense filled the box score, with twelve hits for both teams, but once again Fond du Lac was able to capitalize on multiple big innings that lifted them to victory in the final matchup with Lakeshore.

Ethan Brown opened the scoring in the top of the third when he grounded out to the right side of the infield allowing both runners to advance with Kibler scurrying home, 1-0 Chinooks.

It was the first and last time the lead was in the visiting teams favor in the game.

Fond du Lac responded with their first multi-run inning, pushing ahead 4-1. Command issues arose and the strong outing Libeau started with quickly spiraled out of control. Three walks, mixed between three singles brought around four in a 31 pitch inning. Up to that point, Libeau had thrown 24 pitches in the game.

Slowly climbing back, lakeshore grabbed a run in the fourth and sixth to bring the lead down to one. But again, with the game close, Fondy regained strong control.

Five singles and two errors lead to the explosive sixth with Zak Rasener on the mound for the ‘Nooks. Two infield singles were momentum shifting moments as the defense couldn’t shut down the speed of the Dock Spiders offense. Although errors didn’t extend the inning, they did allow baserunners to advance and put more pressure on the defense in another large inning.

Lakeshore trailed 9-3 after six.

With three innings left, the gas pedal stayed at full throttle for the Chinooks offense, always responding when they were called upon most. In the seventh, they secured a multi-run inning. With bases loaded and nobody out, Ty Wisdom nearly cleared the bases with a double, but Brown was held up at third to continue the threat. Nichol was able to work his way out of the inning and the ‘Nooks would strand the pair in scoring position, but cut the lead to four, 9-5.

Buchanan remained strong out of the bullpen shutting down the Fond du Lac offense and retiring the side in order to keep the momentum in favor of Lakeshore.

However, the ‘Nooks weren’t able to convert in their half of the eighth before the lead was stretched to its largest margin, and seemingly out of reach for the offense. The dagger came with one away and a run already plated in the inning. Adam Cootway, the Dock Spiders best hitter added to his strong summer when he doubled with the bases loaded to bring home the final two runs for Fondy and break the game open at 12-5. It was his lone hit of the night.

Lakeshore fought until the very end, Scaldeferri capped off his strong summer plating Ethan Brown during his at bat on a past ball to bring us to a 12-6 final score.

A strong takeaway for the Chinooks was their offensive consistency, scoring in five separate innings, but with the lone multi-run frame it wouldn’t be enough to take down the Dock Spiders powerful offense.

Dropping the final game of the season, and eight of ten in August, the month wasn’t exactly how Lakeshore looked to finish out an up-and-down summer. The vision was there, but staying through to the end of games was difficult for the Chinooks, a turn around from the first half where they made multiple late inning comebacks.

Overall, the 2024 season had many moments to reflect upon: The Mueller brothers 20 strikeout game, Cohen Achen and Michael Carpenter were drafted to the MLB, Griffin Cameron broke the single-season stolen base record and set a new mark at 43 (in just 38 games), Dominic Kibler was an All-Star, and two former Chinooks were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

After a long season there will be moments of reflection and should have, could have moments, but one thing remains constant, there will always be the love of baseball.

‘Nook Nation, thank you for your unwavering support this summer. We hope to see you back at Moonlight Graham Field next spring, until then, Go ‘Nooks.

Article written by Sam Marchant.