Wausau, WI— The Chinooks dropped their sixth straight contest Thursday night, falling to the Wisconsin Woodchucks 4-3. 

The Chinooks held a lead for the majority of the game, something they’ve been doing consistently during their losing streak, but again managed to blow the lead when Stevie Mangrum (Virginia Tech) rocketed a two-RBI double off of Nick Campe (Olivet Nazarene) with two outs in the seventh. 

During the losing streak, the Chinooks have held a lead in the fifth inning or later five times, but their pitching staff has a surrendered a 12.00 ERA, 20 earned runs, between the seventh and ninth innings. 

The Chinooks built their lead tonight early. Drake Lubin (Eastern Michigan) lead off the game by slapping a ground ball into left field, but after a Kody Matthews (Marshall) fielder’s choice and Zach Biermann (Polk State) strikeout, things looked bleak until Jacob Richardson (Southern Arkansas), with two outs, came up with a clutch, line-drive double on a hanging breaking ball to set the stage for newcomer, Nick Gatewood (Georgia State). 

Gatewood obliged and unloaded on a first-pitch fastball that he put well over the right field fence to give the Chinooks a 3-1 lead after the first inning. 

Those three runs were all starter Zach Spears (Miami-Ohio) would need to cruise through six impressive innings of work and leave with a lead in the seventh. 

Spears’ final line was six innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 3 walks and seven strikeouts. Pairing that with his first start, 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run and 9 strikeouts, and the big, six foot, seven inch lefty has a 1.38 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 1.58 FIP to start the season. 

Spears’ only problem was extra base hits. He surrendered four doubles, including two in the first inning that drove in the Woodchucks first run of the night, and another in the fifth that brought home the second. 

However, his strike percentage was up from 62 in his first start to 65 percent, he threw over 50 percent first pitch strikes after being at 48 percent last time out, and made Woodchuck hitters whiff 12 times. 

The Chinooks did have a chance late in the ninth inning to steal the lead back from the Woodchucks, but closer, Orsen Josephona (Hillsborough CC), burrowed down and worked his way out of a bases loaded, one-out jam to earn his fourth save of the young season. 

It all started when Matthews, already with one out in the inning, rolled over on a fastball and hit it right at shortstop Milton Rivera (North Carolina A&T). But, Rivera uncorked a wild throw that allowed Matthews to reach and the seemingly beached Chinook offense, who hadn't scored since Gatewood’s homer in the first, to jump back into action.

Biermann followed with a walk and Richardson was plunked to load the bases for the day’s earlier hero, Gatewood, but the hard hit, sinking liner off his bat wasn't deep enough to bring Matthews home from third. 

Nick Cheema (Arizona State) stood as the last hope for the Chinooks, but he lifted a fly ball to shallow center that gave the Woodchucks their fourth win of the season. 

Tomorrow, the Chinooks will head to Green Bay, Wisconsin to take on the Bullfrogs in the first of a two-game home and home series that culminates at Kapco Park on Friday night. 

Taking the mound tomorrow for the Chinooks is Shane Smith (Miami-Ohio). In his first two starts, Smith has surrendered 7 earned runs in 13 innings while striking out 4 and walking 2. The Cincinnati, Ohio native will try to earn his first win of the season and break the Chinooks from their six-game losing skid tomorrow at 6:35 from Johannes Park. 

The Lakeshore Chinooks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lakeshorechinooks.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Chinooks as your favorite team.