Lake County Sentinel
Captains complete sweep Whitecaps with 5-4 win
BY ANDREW LUFTGLASS
CAPTAINS MEDIA RELATIONS
(COMSTOCK PARK, MI) - The Lake County Captains completed a three-game sweep of the West Michigan Whitecaps on Wednesday afternoon with a narrow 5-4 victory at Fifth Third Ballpark. West Michigan nearly tied the score in the bottom of the ninth, but Yoiber Marquina struck out Cam Gibson with the tying run on third base to seal the win.
The Whitecaps threatened to tie the ballgame twice in the late stages of the ballgame, but Marquina would not let them. In the bottom of the eighth, the Captains led 5-3 with Derek Hill on second base and two outs. Marquina came in out of the bullpen to replace Dominic DeMasi and try for a four-out save. Marquina gave up an RBI double on his first pitch to Will Allen, but then got Josh Lester to pop out to end the inning, leaving the tying run on second base.
In the ninth, West Michigan rallied again. Jose Azocar legged out a leadoff single and Arvicent Perez bunted him up to second base. Azocar moved to third on a groundout and the Whitecaps had the tying run 90 feet from home plate. Marquina, however, struck out Gibson on a 2-2 pitch to pick up his first save of the year and secure the sweep for Lake County.
DeMasi (2-0) came away with the win in relief. The right-hander surrendered one run in 3.1 innings of work. He struck out one and gave up one hit. West Michigan starter Sandy Baez was saddled with the loss. Baez (0-1) allowed four runs, including two unearned, over 3.2 innings. The right-hander allowed seven hits and struck out four.
On the offensive side, the Captains took a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI single by Martin Cervenka and then were aided for the second straight day by West Michigan errors. In the third, Willi Castro hit a leadoff triple, his second three-bagger in as many days, and Francisco Mejia drove him home with a single. Later in the inning, with two men on and two outs, Cervenka popped up to left field, but Whitecaps left fielder Rashad Brown could not see the ball in the clouds. The ball fell for an error and both Mejia and Nate Winfrey scored to put the Captains up, 4-0. That lead, however, was not safe.
West Michigan scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth after an error by Castro eventually led to a sacrifice fly by Will Allen. The following inning, Derek Hill pulled the Whitecaps within one run with a two-run triple.
The Whitecaps might have come all the way back to tie the game if not for a crucial defensive play by first baseman Anthony Miller. With Hill on third and one out, David Gonzalez hit a ground ball to first base and Hill raced home. Miller, however, threw the runner out at the plate to keep the Captains in front.
Lake County added an important run in the top of the seventh that proved to be the game-winner. Once again, the Captains capitalized on a Whitecaps error. Sam Haggerty was on first base with one out when Nathan Lukes singled to right field. Azocar tried to throw Haggerty out at third, but the ball skipped away from the third baseman Lester. Haggerty scored on the overthrow to give the Captains a 5-3 lead.
The Captains went 3-2 on their road trip and return to Classic Park to begin a four-game series against the Great Lakes Looks on Thursday night. LHP Sam Hentges is scheduled to start for Lake County against LHP Michael Boyle. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m.
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POSTED 04/13/2016 23:11
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