Eli Benes

MEQUON, Wi.- On Saturday, July 11 the Lakeshore Chinooks faced the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters at Moonlight Graham Field in Mequon, Wi. The Chinooks entered Saturday leading the Great Lakes West division with a 7-1 second-half record.

Chinook Eli Niemiec and Rafter Kaden Felan battled in a pitchers duel through the first three innings. Despite being held scoreless, the Chinooks had five base runners off two errors. After a scoreless fourth inning by Niemiec, Vinny Spotofora scored the Chinooks’ first run of the game with a RBI single.

Through two games with the club, Spotofora has four hits in seven at bats. Leading the Rafters by a run through four innings, Niemiec completed his start with scoreless fifth and sixth innings. Niemiec dominated the zone, collecting five strikeouts on 12 whiffs. All five of his strikeouts came on the fastball.

“It’s big when I [have] good command of the fastball. I could work my other pitches off of that and that’s how I get batters put away,” Niemiec said.

Suffering a minor wrist injury in a start against Fond du Lac on June 25, Assistant Coach Brian Gregory said Niemiec asked for the start. Feeling healthy, Niemiec recorded his longest start of the season.

“It’s cool when you got guys saying, ‘I want this.’”, Gregory said. “At that point, you want to see what they can do.”

Niemiec started the seventh inning, but exited shortly due to allowing a leadoff walk. Ryan Richter came in out of the Chinooks bullpen, and the Rafters’ bat came alive as the Rafters took the lead on a two-run double from Esteban Olazaba.

The next batter, David Ketterman extended the Rafters lead to two with a RBI single. With just four hits through the first six innings, the Chinooks offense was tasked with pulling off a comeback win. Needing a response, the Chinooks put runners on first and second base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Up in a hitters’ count at 2-0, Nick Allred evened the score with a two-run triple. Holding the Rafters scoreless in the eighth, the Chinooks grabbed their second lead of the game with a Jack Counsell RBI groundout.

Aukai Kea, who scored from second base, never stopped running during the play and avoided a tag with a hard slide into home plate. Despite the Chinooks being caught stealing twice earlier in the game, Kea’s aggressive base running was crucial as in the next at bat Nathan Hanel flew out to end the inning.

Knowing the teams’ aggressive baserunning will lead to the potential of them being thrown out, Gregory said the team will continue to run.

“It kind of put a hole in the running game, but we knew we were going to pick it back up because that’s who we are and that’s our identity as a team,” Gregory said.

Despite being thrown out 34 times this season — the most out of any team in the Northwoods League — the Chinooks 151 stolen bases ranks third in the league.

Down to their last out with a runner on third, the Rafters scored a stunning three runs to lead 6-4. Needing another battle from their offense, the Chinooks responded with a pair of runs to tie the score at six.

The first run of the inning came on Allred’s second triple of the game, with a RBI single from David Mysza representing the second run. In a game where the Chinooks once looked like they would fall short, they put themselves in a winning position after holding the Rafters scoreless in the top of the tenth.

With the automatic runner advancing to third base on a Counsell groundout, Gregory elected for Casey Robinson to pinch-hit. Serving as a bullpen arm and the  club’s bullpen catcher, Robinson played hero as he found the 3-4 gap for a walk-off RBI single.

Coming up to bat, Robinson was looking for a pitch on the outside corner so he could go to the opposite field. Robinson did just that, as he got a breaking ball on the outside corner.

“I got lucky and he threw something where I was looking,” Robinson said.

Saturday’s contest is another late come from behind win for the Chinooks in the second half, as the Chinooks earlier in the half pulled off an improbable eight-run comeback in a win against Green Bay on July 2.

“With this team — it’s resilience and knowing that no game is going to be out of reach until the game is completed,” Gregory said.

The Chinooks’ 26 wins are tied for the fifth most in the Northwoods League.