Lake County Sentinel
Captains slay Dragons in 10 innings 11-10
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
The Captains got right back on the field Wednesday morning after blowing a ninth inning lead and falling 6-4 to the Dayton Dragons on Tuesday night. Wednesday's 11 a.m. start was much better and longer as the Captains prevailed 11-10 in 10 innings.
Things began to unravel early for the Captains and starting pitcher Casey Shane as the Dragons struck in the first inning on a solo home run by Shed Long. The long ball was Long's fifth of the season and gave Dayton an early 1-0 lead.
The Captains struck back in the bottom of the first inning with three runs. The big blow in the inning by Lake County came when Connor Marabell singled to left field and Yonathan Mendoza (reached on a single) and Willi Castro (single) crossed the plate giving the Captains 3-1 lead.
The Dragons fired back by scoring three runs in the second inning to take a 4-3 lead.
The Dragons then blew the game open in the fourth inning when Shane loaded the base and followed it up by giving up a grand slam to Tyler Stephenson to give the Dragons an 8-3 lead.
The Captains cut the lead to 8-4 with a single run in the fifth inning, but the Dragons came right back with a single run in the sixth inning off Captains reliever Matt Whitehouse.
With the Dragons leading 9-4 in the eighth inning the Captains loaded the bases with two outs and Francisco Mejia smashed a pitch from Michael Sullivan over the right field fence for a grand slam. The home run was Mejia's first of the season and pulled the Captains to within one run at 9-8.
The Dragons added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning to extend their lead to 10-8.
The Captains tied up the marathon in the ninth inning on a bloop double by Mendoza scoring Sam Haggerty and Tyler Krieger who both reached courtesy of base on balls.
Finally with 2 outs in the 10th inning and Haggerty on first base courtesy of a fielder's choice Martin Cervenka doubled over the left fielder's head and Haggerty came all the way around and scored the winning run, giving the Captains the walk off win.
The Captains and Dragons will finish up the three game series on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Franderlin Romero will take the mound for the Dragons. Romero is a righty and is 1-4 with a 3.29. Lefty Sam Hentges will tow the rubber for Lake County. Hentges is 1-3 with a 6.16.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 05/18/2016 14:52
