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Loggers Walk-Off Winners for Third Time This Season, Win 5-4 Over Chinooks

June 28, 2012 - Northwoods League (Northwoods) La Crosse Loggers

LA CROSSE, WIS. - Jacob Dorris has now been the winning pitcher in all three of the Loggers walk-off wins. The La Crosse Loggers took the series win over the Lakeshore Chinooks with a 5-4 victory in front of 2,539 fans at Copeland Park. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Chinooks fielders committed errors on two consecutive at bats to allow the Loggers to maintain their three-game lead over Green Bay in the South Division of the Northwoods League with eight games to play in the first half of the season.

For the third night in a row, Lakeshore took the first lead of the game. Ryan Krill hit his first home run of the year off Loggers starter, James Guillen, to right-center field. The Loggers quickly struck back in the bottom of the inning. Andrew Waszak, who began the night on the mound for Lakeshore, retired the first two batters. Matt Chapman (Cal State Fullerton) then hit a ground ball through the left side of the infield for a single. Bobby Juan (Minnesota) followed with a weak line drive into left field to put runners on first and second base. Brandon Bednar (Florida Gulf Coast) continued the two-out rally, singling up the middle past Waszak and scoring Chapman.

Waszak would then retire the next six Loggers he faced over two innings. Juan broke his streak with a lined double to right center. He later scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Tyler Servais (Princeton).

Again, the bottom of the sixth inning started with a hit for the Loggers, with Austin Bailey (San Diego) singling to left field. Rich Prigatano moved him to third base two batters later on a double to left-center field. Brenden Farney (California) hit a ball hard right at the first baseman, but Krill made a poor throw to home, allowing Bailey to score. Prigatano also tried to score on the play, with the ball getting to the backstop on Krill's throw, but was cut down at the plate with the catcher getting the ball quickly back to Waszak for the tag.

Meanwhile, Guillen only faced one more batter than the minimum from the third to sixth inning. However, he ran into trouble in the top of the seventh inning. After walking Ty Young, Eric Aguilera hit a ground ball through the right side for a single. After a failed bunt attempt that was popped up to third base in foul territory, Krill had his second hit of the night, scoring Young from second. That would mark the end to Guillen's night, with five hits and two walks allowed and six strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings pitched.

Dorris entered the game and promptly gave up a RBI double to the right-center gap to the pinch hitting Zack Granite. Dorris then scrambled out of the jam by stirking out two Chinooks.

One inning later, Aguilera hit his third home run of the year, lining a ball to center field that cleared the fence. The home run gave Lakeshore a 4-3 advantage leading to the bottom of the ninth inning.

After retiring the first two batters he faced in the eighth inning, Tyler Sperger started the ninth inning by hitting Chapman on a 0-1 count. Joe Meggs (Washington) sacrificed to move Chapman into scoring position, but Bednar struck out to give the Loggers one out left. Servais hit a ball hard to Krill at first base, who then threw the ball past a covering Sparger into the Chinooks' dug out to allow Chapman's run to tie the game and Servais to get into scoring positiong at second base. Boomer Collins (Dallas Baptist) then hit a ball hard towards the middle of the field, but German Reyes scooped it and made a throw to first base. The ball skipped past Krill on his right side and made it to the fence, with Servais scoring the winning run.

With the win, the Loggers improve to 21-7 for the season. Lakeshore drops to 13-15. Dorris is now 4-1, with two of his other wins coming on Loggers walk-offs on June 13 and June 16. Sparger's record is now 1-3 as the Chinooks closer.

La Crosse plays again tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. at Copeland Park against the Madison Mallards. Jake Stassi (1-0, 3.62 ERA) will take the mound for the Lumbermen and face Anthony Morzi, who is 2-0 in four starts with a 2.11 ERA.

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Northwoods League Stories from June 28, 2012


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