WINNIPEG, MB — The Chicago Dogs could not overcome a big early deficit caused by errors and walks in a 15-1 loss to the Winnipeg Goldeyes at Shaw Park on Thursday night.

Shoddy defense and poor pitch control doomed the Dogs, as the team committed three errors and walked nine batters in the contest. As a result, only eight of the Goldeyes’ fifteen runs were earned.

The Goldeyes opened the scoring with a two-out rally off of D.J. Snelten (L, 3-1) in the bottom of the first. An RBI single by James Harris put Winnipeg up 1-0. On the next at-bat, the Goldeyes tacked on two runs via a Reggie Abercrombie RBI single coupled with an error by Keon Barnum.

The Dogs’ lone run came in the top of the third. Tony Rosselli doubled to lead off the inning, and scored two batters later on an RBI groundout by David Olmedo-Barrera to cut the deficit to two.

Winnipeg’s offense exploded over the next two innings, plating three runs in the third and four more in the fourth, to put the game out of reach. Singles by Wes Darvill and Kevin Garcia put the Goldeyes up by five. In the next frame, Abercrombie hit a two-run homer to go with two more run-scoring singles to increase the Goldeyes’ lead to nine.

Back-to-back homers in the seventh put the exclamation mark on Winnipeg offensive barrage.

Luke Westphal (5-0) will start game one of a weekend series against Fargo-Moorhead for Chicago on Friday night. First pitch is set for 7:02 PM. Fans can tune in to American Association Baseball TV for live streams of this weekend’s games. For more updates, follow @TheChicagoDogs on social media and use the hashtag #TakeABite.