Lake County Sentinel
Captains win opener 8-7 in 10 innings
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
It was opening day for the Lake County Captains at Classic Park on Thursday night. The Captains played the Fort Wayne TinCaps and the weather was not baseball weather in the least with a game time temperature of 40 degrees and it only got worse. By the sixth inning it was snowing, in front of a nice opening night crowd 3,815. But in the end the Captains prevailed in 10 innings with an 8-7 win.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Captains offense came alive. With one out in the inning Silento Sayles reached base on an error by Fort Wayne first baseman Brad Zunica. Nathan Lukes then drew a base on balls off TinCaps reliever Emmanuel Ramirez. Ramirez replaced starter Walker Lockett who pitched five sht out innings for Fort Wayne. Lockett struck out six Captains and allowed two hits. After the Lukes walk, Willi Castro tripled to right field to drive home Sayles and Lukes to give the Captains a 2-0 lead. Tyler Krieger follwed Castro with a single and Castro trotted home to give Lake County a 3-0 lead. With Francisco Meija at the plate Ramirez uncorked a wild pitch and Krieger moved all the way to third base. Meija then singled to center field and Krieger crossed the plate with the Captains fourth run. The inning ended with the Captains leading 4-0.
Unfortunately for the fans in attendance the Captains pitching staff and defense could not hold the lead as the TinCaps struck for three runs in the top of the seventh off Captains reliever Christian Meister, without recording an out. The lead disappeared completely in the top of the eighth inning when Matt Whitehouse, who relieved Meister in the seventh gave up a run and the game was tied 4-4. Billy Strode then replaced Whitehouse and got the final two outs of the inning and keep the game tied.
The Captains got the bats going again in the bottom of the eighth inning with a little help from Fort Wayne defensive mistakes. The inning began on through shortstop by Castro. Krieger then reached base on an error by Fort Wayne shortstop Ruddy Giron and Castro moved to second base. Castro then moved to third and Krieger moved to second on a nice sacrifice bunt by Meija. Yonathan Mendoza then singled to right field to score Castro and put the Captains back on top 5-4. After Connor Marabell struck out the big blow of the inning came as Anthony Miller doubled left field driving in the final two runs of the night for the Captains giving them a 7-4 lead.
Yoiber Marquino entered the ninth inning on the mound for Lake County with the 7-4 lead, five batters later the game was tied 7-7 after three hits including a two run home run to Ty France.
Finally with one out in the bottom of the tenth inning and Marabell on second base after a double, Miller singled to the right field fence, Marabell crossed the plate giving the Captains the 8-7 win.
Dominic DeMasi picked up the win for the Captains pitching a scoreless tenth inning. With the win DeMasi improves to 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. Phil Maton took the loss for the TinCaps giving up one run in the tenth inning. With the loss Maton falls to 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA.
The Captains and TinCaps will conclude their two game series on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Classic Park. Righthander Austin Smith will be on the mound for the TinCaps. The Captains also send a righty to the mound, Casey Shane will make the start for Lake County.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 04/07/2016 22:27
