Eli Benes

MEQUON, Wi.- 3280. That’s the number of days the Lakeshore Chinooks went without making a Northwoods League playoff appearance.

The nine-year drought was finally snapped last night on Friday, August 7 as the Chinooks defeated the Rockford Rivets 3-2 to take the second-half Great Lakes West crown.

The Chinooks earned the win in familiar fashion, walking off the Rivets in the ninth for their seventh walk-off win of the year while setting the club record in regular season home-game wins with 29.

Before their celebration, the Chinooks’ offense was shut down for the first seven innings of the ballgame. Collecting four hits in the first three innings, the Chinooks were retired in order in three of the four innings leading up to the eighth.

Trailing 2-0 after seven innings of play, Jack Counsell kept the Chinooks in the game with a RBI single, driving in Joshua Chairez. Attempting to take second base with Chairez scoring, catcher Gavin Taylor gunned down Counsell at second to end the inning and stop Lakeshore’s momentum.

After reliever Jordan Stanton retired the side in order in the ninth, the Chinooks needed one more rally in them. Needing only three pitches, Sam Myers and Nick Allred reached base to put the tying runner in Myers in scoring position with zero outs.

Following Allred being hit by a pitch, Field Manager Brian Gregory called over multiple Chinook’ players, including Myers and Allred for a conversation. Gregory said the purpose of the conversation was to get the players to focus on their breathing and to slow down the game.

“We try to prepare these guys for situations where it’s big moments, but they’re still young,” Gregory said. “Sometimes it gets to them a little bit and it’s my job to slow them down.”

Pausing the game for a moment, play resumed with Aukai Kea in the batters box. Never seeing a strike in his at bat, Kea walked to load the bases with zero outs. With the potential finish looking bleak for Rockford, they stayed alive with a strikeout of CJ Trask.

With the largest home crowd of the season at Moonlight Graham Field rowdy and anxious for a potential playoff berth, the Chinook in the lineup with the least amount of games played on the year stepped up to the plate.

Walking up to the plate, Toufic Khabie said he knew he would get the job done for the Chinooks. And he did just that, driving the second pitch of the at bat to the left-center field gap for a walk-off two-run double.

Getting a first-pitch breaking ball over the plate for a strike, Rockford reliever Jimmy Amptmann doubled down on the pitch but caught too much of the zone in the process.

“I was thinking to myself if he likes it for strike one, he’s probably going to like it for strike two,” Khabie said. “Sure enough he hung it again [and] I was able to get the job done.”

Striking out twice and going 0-3 before his big moment, Khabie after each at bat went into the dugout to see what he was doing wrong and what adjustments had to be made.

“As hitters we rely a lot on confidence and being able to keep that up through the tough moments is really important,” Khabie said.

With the dramatic win, the Chinooks needed a Wausau loss to the Minnesota Mud Puppies in order to clinch a playoff spot Friday night. After enjoying post-game fireworks, the Majority of Chinooks players, front office and staff waited anxiously on the field for the result of the game.

The Chinooks waited 47 minutes after their win to eventually see Minnesota hold on for a 8-7 win over Wausau to send the Chinooks to the postseason. Upon the final out, the players huddled up together and celebrated the moment.

One of the players taking in the moment is the club’s second-most tenured player, Sam Meidenbauer. Playing 66 career games for the Chinooks over the course of three seasons, Meidenbauer said he hadn’t seen the crowd as energetic as they were Friday night during his time playing for the Chinooks.

“It was kind of surreal… Taking it in from a broad perspective, it was very eye opening how many people want to win and want to support us,” Meidenbauer said.

Sitting on the bench because of a lower-body injury, the Chinooks’ veteran watched as his team made history.

“It’s great to be able to cheer on the guys and do whatever I can even though I can’t be in the game,” Meidenbauer said.

Another storyline that came out of Friday night is the continued success of Field Manager Brian Gregory. Beginning the season as an assistant coach, Gregory took  over as the teams manager on July 4. Since that date, Gregory has guided Lakeshore to a 19-12 record.

Between his playing days at California State University, Dominguez Hills — Being the head coach at Skyline High School (Washington) — and carrying out his duties as current pitching coach for Chandler-Gilbert CC, Friday’s win in front of over 1700 fans was one Gregory’s top moments of his baseball career.

“That’s what we needed. When you’re this deep in the season it’s hard to get going — everybody really helped us out and got us a [win] today,” Gregory said.

On the hunt for the club’s second Northwoods League Championship, the Chinooks travel to Madison on Sunday, August 9 to open a best of three quarterfinal series with divisional opponent Madison Mallards. The Chinooks won the season series against Madison this year 7-5.