Lake County Sentinel
Captains fall to Lugnuts 6-4
BY ANDREW LUFTGLASS
CAPTAINS MEDIA RELATIONS
(LANSING, MI) – The Lake County Captains nearly came from behind against the Lansing Lugnuts on Thursday night thanks to a towering home run by Anthony Miller and a ninth-inning rally, but the comeback fell just short. The Captains lost the first of a four-game series at Cooley Law School Stadium, 6-4.
The Captains were trailing 6-1 going to the seventh inning and had managed only one hit, but that would soon change. Francisco Mejia, who had the only other Captains hit and had scored their only run to that point, led off with a single. After Martin Cervenka lined out to right field, Connor Marabell bounced a single to right field, putting a pair of runners on for Miller. The left-handed hitter belted a pitch from Lansing reliever Starlyn Suriel over the tall right field wall. The blast only stopped flying when it hit the American flag, high over the 23-foot high wall. Miller’s home run cut the Lugnuts’ lead to 6-4.
Lake County went down quietly in the eighth, but put the tying run on base in the ninth against Lugnuts southpaw Colton Turner. Cervenka worked a one-out walk and Marabell followed with another single, bringing Miller to the plate in a big spot again. With the tying run on first and the go-ahead run at the plate, Turner shut down the Captains. The lefty struck out Miller and Nate Winfrey, back-to-back, to end the ballgame and earn his second save of the season.
Lansing had built its lead early against Captains starter Shao-Ching Chiang, who ultimately took the loss. Three batters into the bottom of the first inning, the Lugnuts took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Juan Kelly. Later in the frame, Justin Atkinson gave Lansing a 2-0 advantage with another RBI single.
The Captains scored a run in the second on a balk by Lugnuts starter Angel Perdomo and Chiang (1-2) settled down after his rocky first inning. Chiang held Lansing scoreless in the second, third and fourth, but the Lugnuts came out swinging again in the fifth and struck for four more runs. After a one-out double by Andrew Guillotte and a walk by Lane Thomas, Mejia mishandled a pitch to move both runners into scoring position on a passed ball. Kelly then hit a sacrifice fly to score Guillotte and Ryan Hissey ripped an RBI triple that scored Thomas. Chiang followed the triple by walking Gunnar Heidt and Atkinson roped a two-run double to put the Lugnuts up, 6-1.
Perdomo (1-0) gave the Captains’ hitters fits and earned the win for Lansing, pitching five innings of one-hit baseball. The 6’7” left-hander only gave up one run and struck out nine men. The only run against Perdomo came when the starter balked with runners on the corners in the second inning, allowing Mejia to score.
Lake County and Lansing face off again on Friday night. LHP Tom Pannone will start for the Captains against Lansing RHP Sean Reid-Foley. First pitch at Cooley Law School Stadium is scheduled for 7:05 p.m..
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POSTED 04/22/2016 01:11
TIM@TCPPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
