Captains drop fifth straight falling to Cougars 8-5 in ten innings

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Captains drop fifth straight falling to Cougars 8-5 in ten innings

BY TIM SHIRER

CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER

(EASTLAKE, OH) - On Friday night the Lake County Captains opened a three-game series with the Kane County Cougars (Diamondbacks). The calendar had turned to May, but the weather seemed to still be in April. But the 1,563 in attendance at Classic Park were treated to a special guest appearance by former Indians outfielder Cory Snyder made an appearance, throwing out the first pitch and signing autographs for hundreds of fans. Things did not go as well on the field as the Captains fell in 10 innings to the Cougars 8-5.

The Captains took the lead early in the first inning off Kane County starting pitcher Ryan Weiss. Weiss, a righthander allowed singled to the first two Captains of the game Marcos Gonzalez and Tyler Freeman. Gonzalez ended up at third base after the Freeman single and Freeman ended up at second base after the throw attempting to gun down Gonzalez at third base failed. Bo Naylor then grounded out to the second baseman and Gonzalez trotted home with the first run of the game. Mitch Reeves followed with a single to left field and Freeman scored giving the Captains a 2-0 lead. Weiss then retired the next two Captains batters to prevent any further damage.

The Cougars came all the way back and took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning off Captains starter Cody Morris. Morris, a righthander issued a base on balls to Geraldo Perdomo to start the inning. Zachery Almond then singled moving Perdomo to second base. Morris then uncorked a wild pitch moving Almond to second base and Perdomo scored on a throwing error by Naylor. The big blow of the inning came next when Buddy Kennedy smashed a 3-2 Morris pitch over the left-center field wall to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead. The home run by Kennedy was his first of the season.

Lake County tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Ruben Cardenas tripled to start the inning. After Jesse Berardi grounded out to second base and Connor Smith was hit by a pitch to put runners at the corners Hosea Nelson hit a sacrifice fly to right field and Cardenas crossed the plate tying the game 3-3.

The Captains took the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when with two outs Quentin Holmes doubled to left field. The double came off Cougars reliever Wesley Rodriguez who replaced Weiss to start the inning. Rodriguez then issued a base on balls to Gonzalez, putting runners on the corners as Holmes stole third base on the ball four pitch. The theft was Holmes fifth of the season. Freeman then reached base on a fielder’s choice scoring Holmes and giving the Captains a 4-3 lead.

The Cougars tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth inning when with one out Perdomo singled. Perdomo then moved all the way to third base on an errant throw by Captains reliever Luis Araujo on an attempt to pick off Perdomo. Perdomo scored on batter later when Almond hit a sacrifice fly to center field.

The game remained tied until the top of the tenth inning when things came unraveled for the Captains and the Cougars scored four times on a combination of the Rob Manfred Runner (runner starts the inning on second base in extra innings), two singles, a wild pitch and a throwing error. When the dust settled the Cougars led 8-4. The Captains managed to get the Rob Manfred Runner across the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning but could manage no more, falling 8-5.

With the loss the Captains have dropped five straight games and have fallen from first place to fourth place in a matter of five days.

The two teams will be back at it on Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. for game two. The Cougars have not announced their starting pitcher. Juan Mota will be on the hill for the Captains. Mota is 0-4 with a 6.08 ERA..