In an epic game that can only be described as playoff baseball in its truest form, the Chicago

Dogs defeated the Lake Country DockHounds in the first game of the Wolff Cup Playoffs on

Wednesday night, walking the game off in the bottom of the ninth inning, winnin 11-9.

Despite what everybody thought would be a fantastic pitching matchup between Jack Nedrow

and Luke Hansel, both teams got off to early starts. The Dogs scored two in the second, Lake

Country answered with five in the third, and Chicago answered back with five of their own in the

bottom half. For Chicago, the love for driving in runs was spread out across those two innings.

Henry Kusiak and Jaylyn Williams both did some damage, with T.J. Hopkins smoking his first

home run of the postseason in the third inning. The Dogs followed that up with three straight

doubles and a few more clutch hits, to take a 7-5 lead.

Then, it got quiet. The bullpens came in and did their job. That is, until the eighth inning, when

things started to go sideways again. Steven Lacey and Trey Braithwaite gave the Dogs a

combined four scoreless innings, striking out five, and stranding a few runners in clutch

situations. But J.C. Keys allowed a run in the top of the eighth inning, giving the DockHounds a

chance to come back. Despite the Dogs best efforts, as they added two in the bottom of the

eighth, the DockHounds tied it in the ninth on Ryan Hernandez’s second home run of the game.

But the Dogs were not done. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Hopkins singled

through the hole on the right side. Chance Sisco followed that up with one of the most majestic,

most clutch, and most insane swings, sending a ball onto the concourse in right field, and

walking off the DockHounds with his first home run of the postseason.

The Dogs will now head to Oconomowoc with a 1-0 series lead. Games 2 and 3 (if needed) will

be in Lake Country on Friday and Saturday. Pitching matchups are still TBD. All Chicago Dogs

games are streamed live on aabaseball.tv.