Captains drop twin bill to River Dogs

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Lake County Sentinel

Captains drop twin bill to River Dogs

BY TIM SHIRER

CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER

(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains and visiting Quad Cities River Bandits were postponed in the first inning on Wednesday night so a doubleheader was in order on Thursday Morning. The first game was the continued game and was a nine-inning contest. The River Bandits swept the doubleheader 7-2 and 1-0 in front of the 1,724 in attendance at Classic Park.

GAME ONE: Things got off to a rough start for the Captains and starting pitcher Alex Royalty immediately as Royalty issued a base on balls to Alex McKenna to start the game, then allowed a single to Enmanuel Valdez and McKenna moved to third base. Royalty then balked and Valdez moved to second and McKenna trotted home with the first run of the game. Royalty did strike out Jeremy Pena for the first out of the inning, but things got worse as he allowed three straight singles to drive in Valdez with the second run and load the bases. That would be the end of the night for Royalty as on the play from the last single he was running to back up home plate and he stumbled and twisted his ankle. Early indications are that the ankle is sprained. Zach Draper replaced Royalty to finish the inning. Draper gave up two straight singles to begin his outing and two more runs scored. On the first single that Draper surrendered Scott Schreiber who had singled off Royalty was gunned down at the plate for the second out of the inning. The inning finally ended when Draper retired Austin Dennis on strikes.

The River Dogs added a run off Draper in the fourth inning to increase the lead to 5-0. Draper went five innings allowing only the one run which was unearned while scattering six hits and striking out five Quad cities hitters.

The Captains closed the gap to 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning of River Dogs reliever Filipe Tejada. Hosea Nelson singled to begin the inning. Jesse Berardi then drew a base on balls. Tejada then retired Daniel Scheenman on strikes for the first out. Quentin Holmes then popped out in foul territory to River Bandits catcher Cesar Salazar for the second out and it looked as though Tejada could preserve the shut out. The Captains had other ideas as Tejada then issued a base on balls to Bo Naylor and the big blow a two-run single off the bat of Tyler Freeman to plate the Captains first two runs of the game.

Quad Cities added two more runs in the top off the ninth to cap the scoring at 7-2. The Captains put a couple of runners on in the bottom of the ninth but could not bring them home.

Royalty suffered the loss for the Captains and falls to 0-2 with an 8.16 ERA. Conine picked up the win. Conine went seven shut out innings allowing only one hit while striking out seven. With the win Conine improves to 2-2 with a 2.25 ERA.

GAME TWO: The second game was a pitcher’s duel as the two starting pitchers Luis Oviedo for Lake County and Nivaldo Rodriguez for the Captains gave up a combined five hits. Oviedo allowed three hits and Rodriguez allowed just two hits.

The River Bandits run, the only run of the game came in the second inning when David Hensley singled to lead off the innings. Jonathan Lacroix then doubled and moved Hensley to third base. Hensley scored two batters later when Trey Dawson grounded out to the third baseman and give Quad Cities an insurmountable lead at 1-0.

Rodriguez a right hander picked up the win. Rodriguez went all seven innings allowing just two hits and issued one base on balls while striking out nine Captains hitters. With the win he improves to 3-1 with a 1.33 ERA. Oviedo took the hard luck loss pitching six innings allowing just one run on three hits. He also issued two base on balls while striking out five River Dog hitters.

The Captains will start a three-game series on Friday night against the visiting Kane County Cougars at 6:30 p.m.

The Captains will send Raymond Burgos to the mound. Kane County has not announced their starting pitcher.

In addition to the Captains taking on the Cougars former Cleveland Indians star Cory Snyder will be signing autographs and meeting with fans during the game. Snyder played was the Indians number draft choice in the 1984 June draft with the fourth overall selection. Snyder went onto play five seasons with the Indians and club 115 home runs. He finished his career with 149 home runs..