The Region's Team Of Northwest Indiana

Whiting, Ind. – June 24, 2023 – While both the Northwest Indiana Oilmen and Elkhart County Miracle had baserunners throughout the day, the pitchers decided the ball game for both teams.

The Oilmen came away with a 6-4 win over the Miracle at the Field of Dreams in Nappanee, Ind.  Starter Silas Noe allowed four runs while striking out three in six innings of work. Jack Niekrasz took over during the seventh inning and pitched three shutout innings to record his first save of the season.

“He’s progressively gotten much better, the only thing that really hurt him was the lead-off walk to Lesher,” manager Adam Enright said. “He did an outstanding job to stretch himself to three innings and if the rest of our bullpen can give us two to three, we will be hard to beat.”

A seesaw game saw the Oilmen grab the early lead. Chris Suchoski played a big role as he continued his break-out week. Suchoski went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. In his last three games, Suchoski is batting .500 and has four RBIs. Ethan Rossi also had a strong performance at the plate going 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

“The biggest thing is just a conversation we had about (Suchoski’s) identity as a hitter,” Enright said. “It’s to not get up there wanting a double or home run every day, it’s swinging to put three to four competitive balls in play.”

The Oilmen improve to 13-7 and inch close to the number one spot in the Northern League. They will look to get a key win over the Lake County Corn Dogs on Sunday afternoon. The first pitch will be thrown out at 4 pm in Crown Point, Ind.