The Lakeshore Chinooks (4-3) held on to defeat the Green Bay Rockers (4-3) 6-5 for their third-straight win on Sunday afternoon at Moonlight Graham Field. The Chinooks remain undefeated at home and are now tied with Green Bay for second place early on in the Great Lakes West division.
Blake Kunz started on the mound for his first game with the Chinooks this season. He got the win after pitching six scoreless innings, allowing zero runs on four hits with six strikeouts.
“In the summer league around here last year he (Blake Kunz) had a lot of success. I played in that league and I know what it requires, so I figured he would be a good candidate to come here and have a lot of success. It is good to see when local guys have a good opportunity here and I’m just glad he is here.” Chinooks field manager Trevor Cho said.
The Chinooks’ offense picked up right where they left off yesterday in the first inning as their first three hitters reached base to load the bases with nobody out. Lakeshore brought in the game’s first run of the game courtesy of a Daniel Pacella RBI sac fly to make it 1-0. However, that is all they would get in the bottom of the first, leaving the score at 1-0.
Lakeshore got things going again in the third after Daniel Pacella recorded his second RBI of the game with a single, scoring Mieszkowski. After a walk and a HBP, Jared Everson walked with the bases loaded to bring in another run, extending the Chinook lead to 3-0. The Chinooks were not done as Ben Hefel followed with a two-RBI single to center that made it 5-0 in favor of Lakeshore.
Nate Mieszkowski tacked on another by virtue of an RBI double that scored Ben Hefel in the sixth.
Green Bay made it a game in the eighth after putting up a four-spot in the inning. A couple walks and a HBP loaded the bases for the Rockers. Carlos Hernandez drove in three on a two-out single and Mateo Matthews followed with an RBI triple in the right center gap to cut the score to two, 6-4.
Ben Whiteside came into close this one out for the Chinooks. An error put runners on first and third with one out in the top of the ninth. Tommy Davis brought in the fifth run on a fielder’s choice and all of a sudden it was a one-run game with the tying run on second. Whiteside then struck out the next batter and the ballgame was over, giving the Chinooks their third win in a row.
“Credit to them, they’ve bought in and stuck with it. Extremely pleased with their work.”
The Chinooks will look to extend their win streak to four tomorrow for game two against the Green Bay Rockers. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m CST at Moonlight Graham Field.
