Written By: Dominic Stearn
Rosemont, Ill — Walking a tightrope for much of the opener, the Lake Country DockHounds, led by Chavez Young, shutout the Chicago Dogs 4-0 to begin their final road series of the season.
“The win [Friday] was all about the pitching,” DockHounds center fielder Chavez Young said. “They attacked and kept Chicago off balance which allowed our bats to get it done.”
Brett Conine started and earned his seventh win of the year by competing five frames and striking out four Dogs. Conine stranded a runner in all five, including a runner in scoring position in his final four.
After Conine had completed six in each of his last four starts, 91 pitches with the traffic he maneuvered prompted DockHounds manager Ken Huckaby to make the call to the bullpen for the sixth inning for Blake Kunz.
Lake Country’s rookie struck out two in order to strand a runner in scoring position and remained in the game to face the leadoff batter in the seventh inning.
A leadoff single called for Jake Cantleberry to come in and face the only left-handed batter for Chicago, Jacob Teter, and pop him out to shallow center. That was all for Cantleberry, who gave way to Braden Boisvert to pitch in back-to-back games for the first time in his young professional career. Boisvert rolled a ground ball for an inning-ending double play, rewarding Huckaby for his bullpen management.
Newly-acquired Jose Lopez and Alan Carter then pitched 1-2-3 innings to finish Lake Country’s sixth shutout of the season, and second of the Dogs.
The double play was one of two game-changing plays defensively from the DockHounds, both of which led to runs.
Firstly, Chavez Young nailed Johnni Turbo at home to end the second inning, which he then followed with an RBI-double to bring Deivy Grullon as the game’s first run. Then in the eighth inning after the double play, a Blake Tiberi double led to a two-run triple from Young for his second and third RBI of the night before scoring on Demetrius Sims sacrifice fly.
Lake Country is now four games in front of the Milwaukee Milkmen for the final playoff spot in the American Association East Division standings, two games behind the Dogs for third place, and trailing the Kane County Cougars by three games. Each team has nine games remaining, with two more for DockHounds in Chicago before three at home against Kane County and four to close the season against the Milkmen.
Bryan Bonnell will look to follow up his seven shutout innings on Monday tomorrow night againstthe Dogs in game two, with a 6:00 first pitch.
