Mequon, WI – The Chinooks (4-3) split a home-and-home with the Mallards coming into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Rafters of Wisconsin Rapids (4-3). The Rafters were seeking a win, coming off two straight losses to the undefeated Wausau Woodchucks.
The Chinooks struggled to find hits against the Rafters’ pitchers, but walks helped them maintain a scoring threat throughout the game. ‘Nooks players freely strolled down to eight times in the game, three by shortstop Gabe Roessler nearly doubling his season total.
Wisconsin Rapids jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first, the first time they’ve pushed across a run in the first inning this season. Two errors put the Rafters in a prime position to open the scoring.
The Chinooks struck back in their half on an Outlaw fielder’s choice to second-baseman Onate. In Lakeshore’s half of the fifth, they tacked on two more to even the score back out at three a piece.
Achen’s second outing would end after a strong 5.0 innings surrendering two runs on 5 hits. The Canadian’s strong strikeout-to-walk ratio contributes to his early success, sitting down 7 batters for every walk.
Rafters batters stayed patient in the 6th allowing them to take the lead again, this time by a 4-run margin. Shapiro started the inning forcing a putout to Roessler. However, he wouldn’t get another out before Switalski came in to secure the last two and sink the Rapids hitters’ hopes of extending the rally.
The big sixth was the home-wrecking moment that rolled off a late strike call by the home plate umpire that unfolded confusion. Catcher, Dominic Kibler stated, “I was very confused.” He felt it was initially signaled ball, but changed to a strike and chaos unfolded afterwards. A once-in-a-lifetime type of play that led to a four spot in the inning for the Rafters who held on for the win. Roessler added that was a momentum shift and led to them stealing four runs in the inning. He felt Chinooks just couldn’t break through in the later parts of the game when they had opportunities.
Lakeshore would cut the lead in half in the bottom of the eight pushing across two runs on as many errors.
After Mueller retired the Rafters in order, the Chinooks turned it over to the top of the line-up in Deboskie. He earned a four-pitch walk to bring the tying run to the plate, Gabe Roessler. Roessler drove a ball to center that appeared to be caught on the diving attempt by centerfielder Vandenheuvel, but was later revealed to have hit the ground. Deboskie retreated back to first before racing to second, but this time wouldn’t win and became the first out of the inning. The tale would end there for the Chinooks and mark their third loss.
When asking manager, Trevor Cho, about the play he took full responsibility noting he hasn’t fine-tuned the base-running mechanics of his players. Cho arrived in Mequon for the season for the team’s home-opener Friday night after reaching the NJCAA World Series with Madison College as an assistant coach. After dropping another game at home, Cho says, “we’ve done a lot of beating ourselves.” With back-to-back strong outings by starting pitchers Hansel and Achen, he emphasizes the need to be able to execute and bring the energy when the umpire says “play ball.” Roessler echos his skipper, saying it was sloppy at times, but they need to put it behind themselves and go get it tomorrow. Adding, they didn’t show up ready to play and Cho “got on us at times in ways we needed.”
Article written by Sam Marchant. Feature image by Chloe Bowers.
