Lake County Sentinel
Captains drop fourth straight with 5-4 loss to Timber Rattlers
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
Saturday night at Classic Park the Lake County Captains were hoping to get on track against the visiting Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Lake County had lost three in a row 16 of 21 entering the game. Things did not improve on Saturday as the homestand ended with the Timber Rattlers stinging the Captains 5-4 in front of 3,006 fans.
The Timber Rattlers attacked the Captains early in the second inning with four runs off starter Micah Miniard. The inning had a little of everything, four singles, two walks, a passed ball and a fielding error. When the dust settled, Wisconsin led 4-0.
The Captains came back in bottom of the inning to put their first run on the board when Todd Isaacs tripled to left field with one out. Conner Capel then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Isaacs and put the Captains on the board and close the gap to three runs at 4-1.
The Timber Rattlers added another run in the fourth inning to extend the lead back to four runs at 5-1.
The Captains put up a fight and put up three runs in the fifth inning. The big blow in the inning came off the bat of Li-Jen Chu, who doubled with two men on, driving home both runners to cut the deficit to 5-3. Chu then scored two hitters later, on a sacrifice fly by Jose Vincente after Mitch Longo had moved Chu to third on a single. The Captains had closed the gap to one run at 5-4, but that was all the offense they could manage on the night.
Chu went 3 for 5 on the night, with the double, a run scored and two RBI. The three hits were a first for Chu this season. Mayfield native Mitch Longo who made his Captains debut on Friday night notched his first hit in the first inning and added another single in the fifth inning.
Wisconsin starter Cameron Roegner picked up the win and improves to 3-1 with a 6.93 ERA. Parker Berberet picked up the save pitching a scoreless ninth inning. The save is Berberet’s first of the season. Miniard took the loss for the Captains. With the loss Miniard falls to 1-3 on the year with a 5.59 ERA.
The Captains will head out to Midland, Michigan to take on the Great Lakes Loons in a three-game series. Game one will be on Monday night at 6:05 p.m. at Dow Diamond. The Loons pitcher is TBA. Righthander Aaron Civale will be on the mound for the Captains. Civale, is 2-2 with a 3.83 ERA.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page
POSTED 05/13/2017 22:29
Lake County Captains third baseman Jorma Rodriguez.
Photo by Greg Goth
