Wausau, WI – After a huge win over the Woodchucks on Thursday, the Chinooks returned to face off against their division rivals in their lasting meeting of the season. However, the offense that was so overpowering on Thursday didn’t have the same spark on Friday, as the Chinooks fell to the Woodchucks by a score of 10-1 to split the series.

Austin Havekost (Kent State) started on the bump for the Chinooks, making his second start and ninth appearance of the season. Coming into Friday, Havekost had an 0-1 record with a 7.43 ERA, recording 9 strikeouts and 12 walks in his 13.1 innings of work.

Havekost ran into trouble right away in the bottom of the first after an RBI single by Steve Passatempo (UMass Lowell) sored Jared Olivia (Arizona) to put the Woodchucks on the board.

The Woodchuks’ bats went silent until the fourth. A lead off home run by Steve Mangrum (Virginia Tech) gave the Woodchcuks a 2-0 lead. Then in the fifth, Mangrum struck again, this time lining an RBI single to score Jared Olivia to make it a 3-0 ballgame. The Woodchucks tacked on one more in the sixth after Javier Martinez (College of Dupage) scored on a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Tony Gudino (UC Riverside) to increase the Woodchucks’ lead to 4-0.

Havekost’s night would end after the fifth, as new-comer Brady Kais (Davenport) came into the game to make his debut appearance for the Chinooks in the sixth.

Woodchucks’ starter Reggie Meyer (Minnesota) held the Chinooks scoreless until the seventh. After Tim DalPorto (Kent State) was hit by a pitch and Matt Johnson (South Dakota State) walked to put two runners on, Owen Miller (Illinois State) roped an RBI double to score DalPorto to cut the Woodchucks’ lead to 4-1.

However, the Woodchucks offense kept their foot on the accelerator in the seventh. George Janca (Texas AM) laced a two-out double to score Steven Mangrum to widen the gap to 5-1.

The Woodchucks’ continued to light up the scoreboard in the eighth against Chinooks’ relievers Mitch Sewald (TCU) and Nick Winter (UW-Milwaukee). After issuing back-to-back walks to start the inning, Sewald was replaced by Winter with two runners on and one out. But, Steele Walker (Oklahoma) welcomed Winter into the game by lining an RBI single to score Connor Heady (Kentucky), then a sac fly to right by Steve Passatempo scored Chad Fleischman (Lamar) to widen the gap to 7-1. Then, Steven Mangrum continued his success against Chinooks’ pitching by blasting a three-run home run, capping off his five-RBI night in style to increase the Woodchucks’ lead to 10-1.

Reggie Meyer stayed on to pitch the ninth and shut the door to secure the 10-1 victory for the Woodchucks to split the final series of the year between the two clubs. Meyer was awarded his first win of the season after holding the Chinooks to one run on five hits, racking up four strikeouts and issuing one walk in his complete game performance. Austin Havekost was issued his second loss of the year after giving up four runs, three of which were earned, on nine hits with three strikeouts and two walks in his 5.2 innings of work.

With the loss the Chinooks drop to 14-14 for the second half and 29-35 overall, while the Woodchucks improve to 16-12 for the second half and 29-34 for the season.

The Chinooks return home to Kapco Park on Saturday to face off against the Green Bay Bullfrogs 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.