Captains stay hot smacking around Whitecaps 9-4

Home

Community Information

Editorial

News Archives

Sports

Lake County Sentinel

Captains stay hot smacking around Whitecaps 9-4

BY TIM SHIRER

CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER

(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains returned home on Friday for a three series with the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Captains return home after a 12-game road trip where they went 8-4. Friday night they continued their hot streaks after trailing early came back to smack around the Whitecaps 9-4 and send the 4,247 in attendance at Classic Park home happy.

The game was anything but a clean game that was ugly defensively from the second inning on as the two teams committed a combined nine errors, five by the Whitecaps and four by the Captains.

The Whitecaps took the first lead of the game in the top of the fourth inning with two runs off Captains starter Juan Mota. Mota pitched well but had to leave the game after four innings because of a reoccurrence of a blister on one of his pitching fingers. He is going to be reevaluated tomorrow (Saturday).

The Captains came right back in the bottom of the fourth inning and scored four runs, the big blow in the inning was a two-run double by Miguel Jerez that gave the Captains the 4-2 lead. The Captains had four hits in the inning including the Jerez double and a double by Mitch Reeves which also drove in a run.

The Captains extended the lead to 6-2 in the sixth inning when Bo Naylor blasted his second home run of the season with Will Benson on third base after he had reached on a single, stole second base and moved to third on an error on the stolen base. Benson currently ranks second in the Midwest league with 18 stolen bases.

The Whitecaps added a run in the seventh inning when Aaron Pinto, who relieved Mota gave up a triple to Reynaldo Rivera and then a double to Jordan Pearce driving home Rivera and pulling the Whitecaps to within three runs at 6-3.

The Captains blew the game open in the eighth inning scoring three more runs increasing their lead to 9-3. The inning included a double by Benson, RBI singles by Naylor, Jesse Berardi and Jose Fermin.

The Whitecaps scored the final run, an unearned run in the ninth inning off Manuel Alvarez who relieved Pinto to start the eighth inning.

Pinto picked up the win for his three innings of relieve. In his night of work, he allowed just one run on four hits and struck out five Whitecaps. With the win the righty improves top 5-1 with a 1.17 ERA. West Michigan starter Kacey Murphy a lefty took the loos. Murphy went five innings allowing four runs, three earned on five hits. He also issued two base on balls and struck out five Captains. With the loss murphy falls to 1-3 with a 6.43 ERA.

The Captains and Whitecaps will play game two of the series on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. Gio Arriera will be on the mound for the Whitecaps. Arriera, a righthander is 2-2 with a 6.49 ERA. Thomas Ponticelli will make the start for the Captains. Ponticelli is 1-0 with a 5.58 ERA.