Corn Dogs Fall Short to Elkhart County Miracle for First Loss of Season

By Joshua Lipowski

The Lake County Corn Dogs traveled to Nappanee, Indiana on Wednesday night to face the Elkhart County Miracle, but the Miracle walked away with a 6-3 win in their very first Northern League contest.

The loss was the Corn Dogs first on the season, as they drop to 5-1 after one week of play. Despite the loss, manager Justin Huisman is not taking this one too hard.

“It only made [our guys] more hungry,” Huisman said. “They can’t wait to play these guys again.”

Jake Thometz started the game on the mound for the Corn Dogs, and after giving up three first inning runs, settled in to pitch three scoreless for four innings on the day. In relief, Mark Tor pitched two innings giving up two runs and Adam Walters would pitch the final two innings giving up only one run.

The relief pitching was something Huisman was pleased with on the night, and he likes the guys he has currently. He feels the team will only get better in this area as the season progresses.

“I think in another week or two once we have our entire team and everybody’s at full strength, we’re going to see what we’re really capable of,” Huisman said.

The Corn Dogs scored all of their runs in the sixth inning, the first coming on a wild pitch to score Ray Hilbrich. The other two came on an RBI triple by Adam Walters and an RBI single by Kevin Hall in his Corn Dogs debut.

The Corn Dogs are off on Thursday before traveling to Highland High School to take on the Indiana Panthers at 7 p.m. Friday in the first matchup this season between the two teams.