Eli Benes<\/p>\n
MEQUON, Wi.- Entering yesterday, June 14 one game under .500, The Lakeshore Chinooks took on the Wausau Woodchucks at 1:05 pm CDT at Moonlight Graham Field.<\/p>\n
Yesterday’s matchup was the second game of a four-game series, with the Woodchucks winning game one 9-7, thanks to a g0-ahead two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Winless through three games against Wausau, the Chinooks earned their first win against the Woodchucks 9-7. The Chinooks trailed 4-1 through 4 1\/2 innings, but broke through in the bottom half of the fifth inning in a big way, scoring seven runs on just two hits.<\/p>\n
The Woodchucks allowed three two-out runs to score due to back-to-back infield errors. Assistant coach Brian Gregory said Saturday’s loss was demoralizing, but the team focused on winning pitches in Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n
“I told these guys that [if] they can win enough pitches, you’re going to win innings, and if you win innings you can win the baseball game,” Gregory said.<\/p>\n
In that fifth inning, 11 Chinooks came up to bat, with just one striking out.<\/p>\n
“We put the ball in play and put pressure on them. Good things happened,” Gregory said.<\/p>\n
Holding a commanding 9-5 lead heading into the top of the ninth inning, the Woodchucks put a scare into the home team by loading the bases with two outs. In a pinch-hit situation, Kyler Northrup delivered a two-run bloop single into centerfield to cut the Chinooks lead down to two.<\/p>\n
Despite not having his best stuff on the mound and allowing two runs in 1.1 innings pitched, Zander Bretza induced a groundball hit to Casey Robinson, who stepped on third base for the win.<\/p>\n
“I knew he had some traffic… but he did a great job,” Gregory said. “He’s got confidence in us and we have confidence in him.”<\/p>\n
The Chinooks had another successful day at the plate after a seven-run performance in Saturday’s loss. Scoring nine runs, the Chinooks put constant pressure on the basepaths by drawing six walks and reaching base on three errors.<\/p>\n
Wyatt Gatlin and Aukai Kea collected multi-hit performances, with Gatlin hitting his first home run of the season in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
Kea’s second hit of the game came in the form of an RBI single and started the seven-run fifth inning rally. On the RBI single to right field, Kea’s approach was to drive the ball to the opposite side of the field.<\/p>\n
“It did feel really nice to execute my plan and get the boys going,” Kea said.<\/p>\n
Facing the Northwoods league home run leader in Wausau, Kea said the Chinooks tried to stay low with their pitches.<\/p>\n
“Damage pitches are always up,” Kea said. “We just tried to attack the bottom of the zone and it worked out.”<\/p>\n
Following through with that plan, the Chinooks allowed just one extra-base hit in Sunday’s contest.<\/p>\n
Now 9-9 on the season, the Chinooks have an opportunity to get over .500 for the second time this season, with first pitch tonight at 6:05 pm CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eli Benes MEQUON, Wi.- Entering yesterday, June 14 one game under .500, The Lakeshore Chinooks took on the Wausau Woodchucks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":18986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n