Fond du Lac, WI – An early start at the plate for the Chinooks led them to a 5-2 win over the Dock Spiders on Friday. 

The Chinooks (7-3) trend of scoring early continued to pay off in Friday night’s game against the Dock Spiders (4-7).

Not only were the bats on top of the pitches tonight, but the Chinooks also capitalized on Dock Spiders errors to set themselves on top. 

The Chinooks in the first inning scored one run on a Dock Spider error after Garret Martin hit a single to left field. 

Scott Rouse (2-2, 2.57 ERA) got the start on the mound for the Chinooks. Rouse pitched six innings allowing no runs on three hits and six strikeouts. 

Rouse was backed up by the Chinooks defense as they left a total of 10 Dock Spiders runners stranded.

Caden Kaiser had a multi-hit game starting in the top of the fourth inning with an RBI double driving in two runs for the chinooks. Martin brought in another run in the fourth with two outs off an infield single to shortstop bringing Kaiser home to score to take a 4-0 lead over the Dock Spiders. 

The Chinook’s defense continued their immaculate performance with diving catches from Tony Livermore in the bottom of the fourth and a four-pitch inning by Rouse in the fifth in what might have been the quickest inning of the season. 

The top of the sixth inning opened up the lead for the Chinooks. Kaiser recorded his third RBI of the game off a single to right field, bringing in Michael Seegers to score to take a 5-0 lead after he was walked in the start of the inning. 

The Dock Spiders were able to get at least one base runner aboard in multiple innings but continued to lack the extra hits to bring the runners around. 

The Chinooks started to copy the trends of the Dock Spiders. Matthias Haas continued his multi-hit night leading off the top of the seventh with a double to the right-side corner of Herr-Baker field. Haas was left stranded as the next three batters were sat down on strikes. 

The Dock Spiders welcomed Kanan Butler (2-2, 3.38 ERA) to the mound for the Chinooks as Connor Manthey led off the inning with an infield single. Manthey would then advance to second on a passed ball and then to third on a wild pitch. Manthey then scored on the second past ball of the inning to put the Dock Spiders on the board. 

Butler ended the inning by facing the University of Mississippi Kemp Alderman. Butler sat Alderman down on strikes to end the inning with bases loaded. Butler pitched one inning for the Chinooks allowing one run on one hit, two walks and had three strikeouts. 

The Chinooks batters were retired in the eighth inning on two fly outs to start the innings, a single to left field by Kaiser and a fly out to end the inning. 

Marc Lidd (1-0, 6.75 ERA) took the mound for the Chinooks in the bottom of the eighth. Lidd in his two innings allowed one run on one hit and had two strikeouts. 

Matthias Haas recorded his third hit of the night in the bottom of the eighth inning with a single to right field. Haas was stranded on the bases in the Chinooks last opportunity at bat. 

The Dock Spiders scored one more run in the bottom of the ninth off an RBI sacrifice fly to center field, but it wasn’t enough to rally back in their 5-2 loss. 

The Chinooks are back at home tomorrow for a two-game series at Moonlight Graham Field at Kapco Park with the Wausau Woodchucks. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m.