Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – The rebranded Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (7-21) couldn’t manage a win despite 12 innings of play at home against the Lakeshore Chinooks (11-17), splitting the series with a 10-8 loss. The “Central Wisconsin Mashers” trailed the Chinooks 5-0 early in the game, but knotted it in the eighth, only to fall in the final inning. The bullpen allowed just one earned run in 10 innings between Seth Spencer, Easton Zempel, Jack Wiessinger and AJ Buenaseda, but the Mashers offense couldn’t finish the comeback as the defense struggled to hold.
The Chinooks took the early lead, scoring one run in the top of the first before adding another four in the top of the second on Mashers starter Tony Torres, grabbing the 5-0 lead.
Wisconsin Rapids’ Torres responded on the offensive end, slapping a two-RBI double in the bottom of the second off Chinooks starter Donnie Edgar before Eric Harper picked up an RBI on a grounder that cut the lead to 5-3.
The Chinooks worked one back in the top of the fourth on an error, and it remained a 6-3 game for a while.
That changed in the bottom of the eighth, when the Mashers came back to tie it up 6-6 with a Hiroto Kobayashi RBI single and a pair of wild pitch runs on the line of Lakeshore’s Logan Schulfer.
The next runs came in the 10th inning when Esteban Garcia came home to score on a throwing error from Mashers catcher Payton Bryant, but Central Wisconsin tied it up with a bases-loaded walk from Luke Skinner on Chinooks reliever Michael Sullivan (1-2) in the bottom of the frame.
The eleventh saw a similar occurrence, with one run coming across for the Chinooks on a potentially inning-ending error from Mashers shortstop Eric Harper before Harper tied it up offensively with an RBI single in the bottom half.
Lakeshore finally pulled away in the 12th, sending home two runs on Mashers reliever AJ Buenaseda (0-2) to make it 10-8, and the Mashers couldn’t respond in the bottom of the inning with Chinooks reliever Noah Kimura earning the save (1).
The loss brings the season series between the two teams closer, as Wisconsin Rapids now leads just 6-4 on the year. They will play each other again on Saturday, but this time at Lakeshore where the Chinooks will hope to win again. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 P.M. and the game will be broadcast for video on NWL+ and for radio on WFHR 97.5 FM/1320 AM.