Corn Dogs outlast Panthers in pitcher’s duel

By Andrew Mild

There has always been the age old question for baseball fans: Do you like a slugfest or a pitcher’s duels? The Corn Dogs have been involved in plenty of slugfests this season, but the game against the Crestwood Panthers Thursday (June 7) was the definition of a good old fashion pitcher’s duel. In fact, there was not a run scored by either team until the bottom of the eighth inning.

Check out our box score on Pointstreak.

The starters in the game were all-stars Justin Shassburger for the Panthers and Jimmy Burke for the Corn Dogs.

Shassburger went five innings with no runs, one walk, two strikeouts and allowed just five hits. Burke, went just one more inning than his counterpart and allowed just six hits and had matched Shassburger for walks and strikeouts. Burke worked his way around danger too, having stranded six runners.

The Corn Dogs would get scoreless frames from South Suburban pitchers Jorge Santos and Jacob Bosse. Bosse’s zero would set up the exciting bottom of the eighth for Lake County. 

It started with a single from Tyler Schultz to set the table. Doug Loden then turned on a pitch he hit down the right field line that and rolled into the right field corner. It was a stand-up RBI triple for Loden.

After a brief argument that the ball was foul, the game resumed, and on the first pitch Roman Kuntz sent a ball sailing over the right field wall and gave the Corn Dogs a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the ninth inning.

Bret Matthys was picked to close the game, and close the game he did while working around an error. Matthys struck out the last two hitters and gave the Corn Dogs a hard fought win.

The Macron Player of the game was Roman Kuntz. Kuntz, who went 2-4 in the game with a double, and his home run served as the nail in the coffin for the Corn Dogs victory. He now has two home runs this season and will play in the Norther League All-Star game on July 12 in Whiting.

The deep fried Dogs now have a record of 23-8 and are still building on their lead for first place in the Northern League.

Photo by Josh Brunette