Lakeshore Tops Loggers
August 5, 2013 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
La Crosse Loggers News Release
LA CROSSE, WI (August 5th, 2013) - Despite eight hits from their top five batters, the La Crosse Loggers (17-12) fell to the first-place Lakeshore Chinooks (20-9) on Monday night.
The Chinooks scored two runs in the top of the first off of Corey Ceponis (Marshalltown CC). Those two runs would be all the Northwoods League South leaders would need.
Andrew Stevenson led the game off with an infield single. First baseman Michael Katz fielded the ball cleanly, but Ceponis appeared to get tripped up by the mound and failed to cover first. The freshman then walked both Sawyer Polen and Mike Hollenbeck to load the bases without any outs.
Chinooks first baseman Aaron Machbitz then hit a liner up the middle for a 2-RBI single to give Lakeshore the early lead. Ceponis battled back and retired the next three batters consecutively to minimize the damage.
La Crosse fired right back in the bottom of the first. Mike Nadratowski (Grand Valley State) stayed hot and smoked a single to center on just the second pitch he saw. DeFazio, who had four hits on Sunday, followed up Nadratowski's hit with a single of his own. Kevin Zak (GVS) then drew a walk to load the bases with no one down.
Michael Katz - one of the NWL's top power bats - then stepped to the plate. The 6-3 William and Mary product grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, but Nadratowski did score on the play. Center fielder Johnny Bekakis (Long Beach State) then hit a deep fly ball to right field. What initially appeared to be a 2-run homer, ended up being caught at the wall by Manning for the third and final out of the inning.
Ceponis then retired nine out of 10 batters to keep the Lumbermen in it. Despite the rough first inning, the southpaw did last five innings. He surrendered five hits and three walks, while striking out three.
Jake Tuttle came on in the bottom of the fifth and retired Eric Toole (Iowa) and Steve Moen (Sonoma State) consecutively. The lefty then allowed back-to-back-to-back singles to Nadratowski, DeFazio and Zak to load the bases once again for Katz. The slugger hit the 1-2 pitch well, but right at Jared Fon and the UW-Whitewater product gunned out Katz to end the scare.
Lakeshore would tally one more in the top of the seventh. After third baseman Chris Keck dropped a foul ball, Polen made him pay. The Chinooks shortstop sent Ben Cejka's next pitch, a fastball, far over the center field wall for his fourth big fly of the summer.
The Lumbermen now stand three games out of first place with six games to play. They will be in Alexandria tomorrow evening for a 7:05 game. Tune into the Loggers Radio Network at 6:30 for the Kwik Trip Pregame show with Micah Schroeder.
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