Snowhawks cruise to victory

The last time out, the Snowhawks showed a flair for the dramatic with a walk-off win against the Chicago All-Stars. It was a much different game on Monday.

The Snowhawks led wire-to-wire and beat Lake Tom Tap House 21-13 in seven innings.

“I don’t have words for that one,” coach Jeff Smith said. “They didn’t come with a team that we expected. I know they had a lot of people that committed early in the season that never showed up. They threw a bunch of people together that work at the local establishments.”

Runs came early and often for the Snowhawks. They scored at least three runs in the first five innings. 

Each of the first five batters reached and scored in the first inning for the home team. Smith ended up scoring a game-high five runs in the contest.

The Snowhawks led 9-0 after the second inning and 21-6 after five. The bats were heating up after two wins last week.

“It’s not exactly a competitive team, but it was more of a fun, relaxed kind of exhibition game,” Smith said. “It wasn’t really something we are used to. It’s tough coming off of two tough games in one week and having to play that. At least they showed up, they had enough people, and we were glad we could at least get a game in.”

Jesse Robinson delivered a two-run double in the second inning. Cole Punches hit a single to left in the fourth to score two runs.

The Snowhawks tried to keep the game competitive.

“We let a few balls squirt by and threw the ball around to keep it somewhat close,” Smith said. “We were missing four starters ourselves.”

“We tried to hit the ball on the ground, we tried to hit the ball, kind of pop up so they can make some plays,” Smith said. “We knew kind of right from the start what was going to happen. We didn’t try real hard to hit long balls.”

Lake Tom Tap House didn’t help themselves in the field with a couple of drops. The Snowhawks took advantage and scored a few extra runs.

“There were a lot of pop-ups that dropped in front of people that should’ve been caught,” Smith said. 

A rare moment happened in the third inning when the Snowhawks batted around. They were able to get all nine batters to the plate. The last hit of the third came courtesy of Jack Dunbar, filling in for Paul Miller.

Lake Tom Tap House got on the board with four runs in the third inning. Nine batters came to the plate.

In the fourth inning, Josh Choinski reached base and drove in a run. Jeff Ziemba followed that up with a single and RBI himself. Lake Tom Tap House cut their deficit to seven runs, the closest they would get to the Snowhawks. 

With the game out of hand, there were a couple of fun moments that got the crowd buzzing. One of the highlights of the game came from Liz Taylor of Lake Tom Tap House in the sixth inning. 

On the pitch, Taylor grabbed the ball out of mid-air and ran with it. She rounded third base and tossed the ball to the crowd before crossing home plate. Four runs were awarded to Lake Tom Tap House. 

“That’s all we can do is just try to keep the fun in the game, try to keep the people in the stands,” Smith said. “A couple balls that might’ve been close were called safe. They were a little rough on us calling us out on different bases. That’s all in fun.”

Smith decided to finish the game after seven innings.

“Competitive-wise, I don’t think anybody wanted to see it go any longer,” Smith said. “It was under our advisory this game could really get out of hand fast so let’s just make it seven so we can get out of here.”

Up next, the Snowhawks (4-0) will take on Wickman Construction on Monday, July 15 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. Last year’s game got rained out in the first inning.

“They actually put a run on the board right away, and then we got doused with rain,” Smith said. “We’re kind of looking forward to that. We don’t exactly know what team they’re going to have. They were new on the schedule last year. They agreed to play another year this year.”

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].