Wausau, WI – The Chinooks traveled to face the Wisconsin Woodchucks on Thursday after splitting a two game series with the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters on Wednesday. For a team that is ranked last in offensive production, the Chinooks were run a scoring machine on Thursday. On a night that every Chinooks’ player in the lineup tallied a hit, the Chinooks finished with 14 hits and racked up 16 runs to beat the Woodchucks by a score of 16-6.

Nolan Bond (Houston) took the mound for Lakeshore, making his sixth start and eleventh appearance of the season. Coming into Thursday, Bond posted a 0-2 record with a 2.73 ERA, racking up 15 strikeouts and 14 walks in his 33.0 innings of work.

Bond’s night didn't start off as smooth as he planned. After giving up lead off back-to-back singles, Bond left a 0-1 offering to Steve Passatempo (UMass Lowell) over the middle of the plate, and Passatempo drove it out of the ball for his first homer of the season, giving the Woodchucks an early 3-0 lead after the first inning of play.

The Chinooks battled back in the top of the third against Woodchucks’ starter Jake McMahon (St. Norbert College). James Bleming (Lehigh) lead off the inning by lining a double, then Zach Taylor (Houston) bombed a two-run home run to put the Chinooks within in on Taylor’s third homer of the season.

The Chinooks carried their momentum from the third into the fourth. Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) continued to tear the cover off the ball by driving his eighth home run of the season, evening the game at 3-3 on his solo shot. Later in the inning, after James Bleming drew a two-out walk, Hayden Senger (Miami-Ohio) slapped a double, bringing around Bleming to score the go-ahead run for Lakeshore.

Unfortunately for the Woodchucks, the Chinooks were just getting warmed up heading into the fifth. Matt Reardon (Florida Gulf Coast) lead off the inning by drawing a walk, followed by a one-out single by Kevin Riley (Chaffey CC) to put two runners on for Lakeshore. Tim DalPorto (Kent State) then hit an RBI single to score Reardon for the fifth run of the game for the Chinooks.

McMahon was then taken out of the game, being replaced by Zach Kammin (Coe College). But, the Chinooks weren’t fazed by Kammin’s entrance. After Matt Johnson was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Owen Miller (Illinois State) lined an RBI single to score Riley and DalPorto to increase the lead to 7-3. Next, James Bleming drew a walk to load the bases once again, setting the stage for Hayden Senger to deliver his second RBI double of the day, scoring Johnson and Miller to make it a 9-3 ballgame. Then, with two out in the inning Matt Reardon laced an RBI double to bring around Bleming and Senger on the play to extend the Chinooks’ lead to 11-3. Reardon’s RBI double to cap off the seven-run fifth inning extended his hit streak to ten consecutive games.

The Woodchucks picked up a run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a solo home run by Steele Walker (Oklahoma) to bring the score to 11-4. Then in the sixth, a sac fly to left by Chad Fleischman (Lamar) and an error by Chinooks’ third baseman Kevin Riley allowed George Janca (Virginia Tech) to score to cut the Lakeshore lead to five.

Bond’s night ended after the sixth, as Luke Sommerfeld (Saint Louis) came out of the bullpen to pitch the seventh. Sommerfeld stayed on the pitch the rest of the way, holding the Woodchucks to just one hit and racking up five strikeouts in his three innings of work.

The Chinooks’ offense was quiet after the fifth, but it came back with a final surge in the top of the ninth. An RBI single by Kevin Riley drove in Matt Reardon to bring the score to 12-6. Next, Tim DalPorto grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Joe Duncan (Eastern Illinois) was able to score on the play to extend the lead to 13-6. After Matt Johnson was issued his second walk of the night to load the bases, Owen Miller hit a ground ball to third, but Woodchucks’ third baseman Chad Fleischman couldn’t field the ball cleanly, allowing Riley and DalPorto to score to widen the gap to 15-6. Then, a sac fly to center by Hayden Senger brought home Johnson to cap off a five run ninth inning and bring the score to 16-6.

Sommerfeld shut the door in the bottom of the ninth to secure the 16-6 victory for Lakeshore, earning his second save of the season.

Nolan Bond was awarded his first win of the season after giving up six runs on nine hits, issuing no walks and accruing two strikeouts over his six innings of work. Jake McMahon was issued his first loss of the year after allowing seven runs on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts in his short 4.1 innings pitched for the Woodchucks.

The Chinooks’ ability to drive in runs on Thursday was fun to watch. Kevin Riley and Matt Johnson finished with one RBI on the night, while Matt Reardon, Zac Taylor, and Tim DalPorto drove in two runs each for the Chinooks. But, Owen Miller’s three RBI’s and Hayden Senger’s four RBI’s helped lead an offense who, until the last couple of games, struggled to drive runners home make one last push to be in contention for a playoff position with only a few games left in the season.

With the win the Chinooks improve to 14-13 for the second half and 29-34 overall, while the Woodchucks drop to 15-12 for the second half and 28-34 for the season.

The Chinooks return to Wausau on Friday to face off against the Woodchucks in the final meeting of the season at 6:35 pm.

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 150 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit http://northwoodsleague.com/lakeshore-chinooks or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.