Chicago All-Stars too much for Snowhawks

A bounce-back effort by the Lake Tomahawk snowshoe baseball team helped it to overtake the local police/fire department after a Fourth of July loss to the Chicago All-Stars.

The Chicago All-Stars beat the Snowhawks 18-7 on Friday, July 4. Then, the Snowhawks defeated the local police/fire department 21-10 on Monday.

Chicago All-Stars 18, Snowhawks 7

The Snowhawks found trouble early in their traditional Fourth of July game against the Chicago All-Stars. 

“It did not end up too well,” Snowhawks player-coach Jeff Smith said afterward. “We hung with them as long as we could, and they just unleashed on us.”

That unleashing included a five-run fourth inning for the All-Stars that put them up for good. 

“We had a not-so-good sixth inning,” Smith said. “There were a couple of errors, but that was just the start of it. They just started hitting the ball all over the place.”

He said some of those hits for the All-Stars included “some dingers over the fence.”

“We could not score any runs,” Smith said. “We’d have guys on base, but we got picked off a couple times on double-plays.”

He said when the Snowhawks did get some hits, many of those were right to opposing players. 

“It was just a one-two-three out,” Smith said. “It kind of went like that for the last three innings or so. We just could not get things going again.”

Things turned out to be what Smith said he was afraid of what would happen. 

“When they (All-Stars) get rolling like that, they score runs quick,” he said. “You walk a person, it kills you. If you have an error in the outfield — a dropped ball or missed play at second base — it just folds over, and it’s no good. They will take advantage of everything.”

Every time the All-Stars would get runs in an inning, Smith said, the Snowhawks “could not answer back.”

“We played our hearts out,” he said. “We turned our double plays when we could and had some really nice stops in the infield but we just could not match the hits that they unleashed on us.”

Smith said he had to “take my hat off to the All-Stars” as they “have a very good hitting team.”

“They’ve gotten really good on snowshoes over the years, and it’s really not a home field advantage anymore,” he said. 

With it being the Fourth of July, Smith said there was “a heck of a crowd.”

“There were a lot of people there,” he said. “Usually, on the Fourth, everybody has gotten their seats pretty much by 10 o’clock in the morning. There’s blankets out, seats reserved. It’s always a big draw.”

Snowhawks 21, Local police/fire 10

    Jesse Robinson of the Lake Tomahawk Snowhawks attempts to make a leaping catch during a snowshoe baseball game against local police and fire departments Monday, July 7 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

“My first thoughts were, ‘Holy cow, they really brought a heck of a team here,’ and they did,” Smith said. “I mean, there were a lot of big guys. I thought, ‘We’re going to have our hands full,’ and it kind of started out that way, too. I knew it was going to be a nice night. The weather was setting up to be perfect. I knew we were going to have a good night. And they came to play.”

Rob Dumovich got the police/fire department off to a good start with an RBI single in the top of the first inning. However, they left runs on the board when Nick Seeger lined into a double play.

The Snowhawks took the lead in the bottom half of the inning and never looked back.

A drop in right field loaded the bases as Cole Punches reached first base. Jesse Robinson tied the game with an RBI fielder’s choice. Two batters later, Nick Merckx hit an RBI single to center to give the home team a 2-1 lead.

Defense continued to be a positive for the Snowhawks. They turned their second double play of the game, this one off the bat of police/fire department’s Elisha Williams in the second inning.

The Snowhawks started to separate themselves in the second inning. Jeff Smith drove in a run with a hit. Derek Young laced a two-run double to left-center field. Then, another police/fire department mistake in the field saw another run come across to score.

“When we played Chicago, there weren’t a lot of miscues on their part,” Smith said. “When you don’t have those opportunities, you just don’t get them back, and you don’t get the reward from it, you know. When they threw the ball, it was right on track, and they didn’t throw the ball around so we did not get those extra bases on Chicago, and we did not get those extra-base hits because they’d field it so well. Last night was a little bit different. They didn’t have the fielding like that, and yeah, we took advantage of it.”

After two innings, the Snowhawks led 6-1.

Seeger got the police/fire department back in the game with a single down the left field line in the top of the third. He drove in two runs to make it a 6-5 game.

A head-turning play by Young at shortstop ended the top of the third. He made a diving stop and started a double play, one of four turned by the Snowhawks’ defense.

“We got a few double plays that got us out of the situations that we got in,” Smith said.

The double play seemed to wipe out any momentum the local police/fire department had for themselves. The Snowhawks had a big bottom half of the third.

Billy Kuckahn delivered an RBI single to right. Then, one of the Snowhawks’ new players Zach Wachter, reached on a fielder’s choice with a run scoring on an error. 

“Zach really surprised me. He caught some nice balls yesterday in the outfield,” Smith said. “Zach ran balls down. He threw to the right infield, to the right cutoff, and he did everything really I expected him to. He’s played softball before, but not very many games under his belt. He’s really learning, and he’s getting around pretty good. I was really surprised.”

Paul Miller hit an RBI single in the No. 10 spot of the lineup for the Snowhawks. Young and Punches both had RBI hits as the Snowhawks scored the maximum five runs in the inning.

“We wanted to lay the ball down outside of just dribblers to the infield, and that’s kind of what happened,” Smith said. “Against the Chicago guys, we were hitting right to people. We wanted to concentrate on getting balls that were hitting more in the gaps.”

One swing gave the local police/fire department a big lift in the top of the fourth inning. Will Taege hit an inside-the-park home run to deep left-center field. The home run came with two outs.

“They definitely had power. I saw them in batting practice,” Smith said. “By the time the ball came into the infield, I didn’t even turn around. I think I caught the ball, and I just … let him go. That was a real in-the-park home run there. And you know what? He was pretty doggone good on shoes, too.”

The Snowhawks displayed a little pop of their own. Robinson led off the bottom of the sixth with an inside-the-park home run to left field. He put Lake Tomahawk up 14-7.

“He hits the ball hard, he causes errors,” Smith said. “Normal line drives that hit will take different bounces. You have to really be ready for a shot when he hits it. I tend to practice a little bit at third, but I stay pretty far back, and I just get the gist of how fast the ball comes to you. And hopefully it doesn’t bend any fingers back. He really gets a hold of the ball when he swings. He’s got a really good swing.”

Ryan Schowalter, who has suited up for the Snowhawks, played shortstop for the local police/fire department. He had an infield single in the seventh inning. Later on, Burrows and Williams both had RBI hits to score runs.

The local police/fire department cut the Snowhawks’ lead to 14-10.

The Snowhawks ended the game with seven unanswered runs. Smith scored two more runs, giving him five runs scored in the game as the leadoff hitter.

“It was nice,” Smith said. “It probably will be my last year, so I just kind of want to go out with a bang, you know? I’m having fun with those young guys. It’s been a really good run here, and I just kind of want to make that 23rd year more special.”

Up next, the Snowhawks (2-1) take on Zimmy’s All-Stars on Monday, July 14 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. The game starts at 7:30 p.m.

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].

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