Lake Odessa Lakewood at Portland – – Baseball – – The Bleacher Denizen – – April 23, 2024 – – by Chuck Krafft

It’s a chilly day, but that will not deter either the visiting Vikings from Lake Odessa Lakewood or the host Portland Raiders from playing (at least the first game) of their scheduled baseball doubleheader. Your Bleacher Denizen got through all the lane changes and other construction challenges on I-96 and made it to Portland in time to get the starting lineups and talk briefly with both coaches.

Here are the starting lineups:

LAKE ODESSA LAKEWOOD

Blake Price ss

Seth Willette lf

Landon Makley p

Chanse Courtney 2b

Chaney Steward rf

Troy Acker 1b

Ashton Pfeifer dh

Brennan Lehman 3b

Garrett Feighan cf

Reiley Teigeler will catch, but will not bat.

PORTLAND

Caden Thelen p

Barrett Brennan cf

Evan Thelen ss

Mark Meyers c

Brody Moore dh

A.J. Weber lf

Gunner Williams 3b

Brady Meyers rf

Levi Nobis 2b

Owen Smith will play first base, but will not bat.

It is now time to look at the events of this game through the hopefully clear lenses of an aging Bleacher Denizen who did not have a successful career. Everything went downhill after the baseball powers that be ruled that I could not use a catapult to throw the ball in from the outfield. (Alas, way too many runners tagged up from first base and scored on routine fly balls to the outfield after that.)

Blake Price doubled down the left field line to lead of the top of the first inning for Lakewood. Portland Catcher Mark Meyers made a fine tumbling catch on the next batter’s foul popup to record the Vikings’ first out. Portland Pitcher Caden Thelen struck out the next Lakewood hitter. Chanse Courtney drew a walk. Caden Thelen struck out the next batter to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, Lakewood Center Fielder Garrett Feighan made an excellent running catch in deep center field to retire Portland’s leadoff batter. Viking Pitcher Landon Makley retired the next two Raider hitters on a squib to the mound and a strikeout.

Caden Thelen struck out the first two Lakewood hitters in the top of the second inning. Brennan Lehman walked. The Vikings made their third out on a grounder to second base.

Landon Makley struck out the Portland leadoff batter in the bottom of the second inning. Brody Moore belted a double off the left field fence and went to third base when A.J. Weber was safe at first base on an error. A.J. Weber stole second base. Landon Makley struck out the next Raider hitter. Brad Meyers beat out an infield single to drive in Brody Moore with Portland’s first run as A.J. Weber went to third base. Levi Nobis beat out a bunt single to drive in A.J. Weber as Brad Meyers advanced to second base. Landon Makley retired the next batter on a grounder to first base.

Portland scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Caden Thelen retired Lakewood’s leadoff batter in the top of the third inning on a bouncer to the mound. Seth Willette and Landon Makley walked. Gabe Porter entered the game as a courtesy runner for Landon Makley. Caden Thelen struck out the next two Viking batters to end the inning.

Landon Makley struck out Lakewood’s leadoff batter in the bottom of the third inning. He retired the next hitter on a foul popup to first base. Mark Meyers walked. Viking Left Fielder Seth Willette made a nice running catch of a drive by Brody Moore to record Portland’s third out.

Your Bleacher Denizen had been smelling hot dogs on Portland’s barbecue concession for a couple innings; as the stand was close to the bleachers, he was able to get his first barbecued item of the spring. The hot dog was great!!! Kudos to the people at the barbecue concession!!

Paul Roberts was too busy warming up to enter the game as Portland’s pitcher in the top of the fourth inning to partake in the excellent hot dogs. He entered the game as Caden Thelen went out to center field and Barrett Brennan went to right field.

Paul Roberts retired Lakewood’s three fourth inning hitters on a grounder to shortstop, a strikeout and a grounder to third base.

Landon Makley struck out Portland’s leadoff batter in the top of the fourth inning. Gunner Williams was hit by a pitch. After Portland’s next hitter was out on a fly to right field, Gunner Williams took second base on a passed ball and third base on a wild pitch. Landon Makley struck out the next hitter to end the inning.

After four innings, Portland continued to hold a 2-0 lead.

Paul Roberts struck out Lakewood’s first two batters in the top of the fifth inning and got the third out on a grounder to third base.

Landon Makley walked to lead off the top of the fifth inning for Lakewood. Gabe Porter came in as a courtesy runner and went to third base when Chanse Courtney doubled down the left field line.

Evan Thelen came in to pitch for Portland and Max Sandborn went in to play shortstop.

Gabe Porter scored on an RBI groundout to the shortstop by Chaney Steward. Chanse Courtney scored when Troy Acker was safe at first base on an error; Troy Acker moved up to second base when Ashton Pfeifer walked. Portland Shortstop Max Sandborn made a nice play roaming back into center field to catch a popup for the second Lakewood out.

Troy Acker scored and Ashton Pfeifer advanced to second base when Garrett Feighton was safe at first base on an error. Blake Price was safe at first and the runner out at second on a fielder’s choice grounder to the shortstop.

Lakewood scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 3-2 lead.

Mark Meyers singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning for Portland. He went to second base on a wild pitch. After Brody Moore ran up a count of three balls and no strikes, he was intentionally walked. A.J. beat out a bunt as Mark Meyers went to third and Brody Moore to second.

Gunner Williams hit a grounder to Lakewood Second Baseman Chanse Courtney; he thought about throwing home, but decided to get the sure out at first base – – except that because of the loaded bases and a possible miscommunication, no one was covering there. Chanse Courtney alertly dashed to first base with the ball to record the out (and prevent a situation where Portland had the bases loaded with no out in a tie game.)

Mark Meyers scored, Brody Moore went to third base and A.J. Weber to second base on the play (and Gunner Williams earned an RBI.) The next hitter popped up a bunt; Lakewood Pitcher Landon Makley made a nice grab and threw to third base to double the runner off and end the inning.

Portland scored one run in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3.

Evan Thelen retired the three Lakewood hitters in the top of the seventh inning on a strikeout, a fly to center field and a fly to left field.

Landon Makley retired the three Portland hitters in the bottom of the seventh inning on a strikeout (because of a fouled off bunt with two strikes) and two popups to second base.

As the game was tied after seven regulation innings at 3-3, it went into extra innings.

Lakewood’s leadoff batter in the top of the eighth inning was out on a ground ball to second base. Troy Acker doubled down the right field line. Evan Thelen struck out the next Viking hitter. Brennan Lehman was safe at first base on a fielder’s choice grounder to third base; the runner on second was caught in a rundown for the third out.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lakewood Third Baseman Brennan Lehman made a fine play to knock down a line drive by Portland’s Evan Thelen and threw him out at first base. Mark Meyers singled to right field.

Blake Price came in to pitch for the Vikings. Chanse Courtney moved to shortstop and London Makley to second base.

Viking Center Fielder Garrett Feighan went way back into deep center field to catch a drive by Brody Moore for the second Raider out. Keaton McGregor entered the game as a courtesy runner for Mark Meyers. A.J. Weber was safe at first base on an error; Lakewood First Baseman Troy Acker made a fine throw to third base to catch the runner trying to get an extra base for the third out.

After eight innings, the game was still tied at 3-3.

Evan Thelen retired the three Lakewood batters in the top of the ninth inning on two strikeouts and a grounder to third base.

Blake Price struck out Portland’s leadoff batter in the top of the ninth inning. Max Sandborn drew a walk. Levi Nobis dropped a sacrifice bunt; Max Sandborn came around to score the winning run for Portland on a throwing error.

Portland won this extra-inning game by a 4-3 score.

Troy Acker had a double and one RBI for Lake Odessa Lakewood. Chanse Courtney and Blake Price each had a double. Chaney Steward had one RBI.

Landon Makley pitched seven and one third innings and gave up only one earned run. He struck out eight batters and limited Portland to five hits. Blake Price pitched one inning and gave up one unearned run. He struck out one batter.

Brody Moore had a double for Portland. Mark Meyers had two singles. Brad Meyers and Levi Nobis each had one single and one RBI. Gunner Williams had one RBI.

Three pitchers all did solid work on the mound for Portland. Caden Thelen opened the game with three scoreless innings and struck out six batters. Paul Roberts pitched the next two innings and faced two batters in the top of the sixth inning. He retired the first six batters he faced while striking out three of them. He gave up two earned runs. Evan Thelen pitched the final four innings for Portland. He gave up only one unearned run and struck out four batters.

This was supposed to be a double header, but after Blake Price led off the second game for Lakewood with a single and stole second base, the umpires spotted lightning; as there would have probably been only a half hour or so of light after the game could have resumed, it was decided to call the game.

(Because it is a league game, I imagine it will be played some time; I don’t know if the game will start from scratch or with Blake Price on second base.)

I’d like to that both coaches, Chris Trierweiler from Portland and Brad Tacey from Lakewood for their help and friendliness as I got information from them for these notes. I’d like to extend a special thank you to Coach Tacey as he messaged responses to a couple questions where I managed not to take complete notes so that this article couple be accurate as possible!!!