Chinooks Cool off After Hot Start
Northwoods Lakeshore Chinooks

Chinooks Cool off After Hot Start

Published on July 13, 2025 under Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Lakeshore Chinooks News Release


MEQUON, Wis.- With the Northwoods League All-Star break looming, the Chinooks hosted the Green Bay Rockers as they looked to snap their five-game losing skid.

The game got off to a similar start to Saturday night's 8-7 defeat to the Rockers. The Chinooks offense jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead.

Nate Gray got the scoring started after Jack Kleveno was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 2nd inning. Lakeshore added two more an inning later off a couple of errors by Green Bay first baseman Joe Mennella. In the 4th, the 'Nooks added a fourth run off the third error of the game by Mennella.

But, like the loss on Saturday, the bats fell quiet. Assistant coach Peyton Holyoak put it best.

"Once we got out to that lead, we settled in a little too much...we got complacent."

In the final five innings, the Chinooks offense recorded just one hit- a Broc Parmer single to lead off the bottom of the 5th inning.

The top of the Chinooks order- Cade Sears, Grant Gray and Esteban Garcia- combined to reach base just twice. Holyoak says their lack of production threw off the offensive balance.

"They set the tone for everyone else," he said. "When they're struggling, I think everyone else feeds off of that."

Holyoak went on to say that their absence shouldn't be used as a cop out for the rest of the lineup.

"Everybody has to be competitive," he said.

Lakeshore's pitchers did a decent job overall. Logan Schulfer got the start and found a groove through the first four innings. He punched out six Rockers through four innings of shutout baseball.

Then came the Rockers' big inning, an experience Schulfer called, "a slap in the face."

Green Bay plated six runs and took their first lead of the afternoon, a lead they never let go of.

"I started throwing balls down the middle," Schulfer said about the nightmare frame. "It doesn't really help when you do that."

A trio of singles, which scored two runs, set the stage for Mennella, stepping into the batter's box with the bases loaded.

Mennella put his fielding errors behind him by smoking a no-doubt grand slam over the Johnson Financial Backyard Patio in left field, ending Schulfer's outing on a sour note and giving him a feeling he said he never wants to feel again.

"It sucks," the UW-Milwaukee senior said of being the pitcher to give up a grand slam. "No other way to put it."

The Chinooks enter the All-Star break 5-8 and sit in fifth in the Great Lakes West- three games ahead of last place Wisconsin Rapids.

Holyoak thinks the team is ready for a break, making the four days off conveniently timed.

Lakeshore will return to action on July 18 in Wausau where they will take on the first-place Woodchucks.

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Northwoods League Stories from July 13, 2025


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