Lake County Sentinel
Captains top Lugnuts in a Classic slugfest 14-12
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
The Lake County Captains won in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night as they beat the visiting Lansing Lugnuts 7-6 on a walk off sacrifice fly. Wednesday afternoon was a little bit different ballgame as the Lugnuts jumped on Captains starting pitcher Sam Hentges early and often, but the Captains rallied late and won the slugfest 14-12.
Lansing got on the board with four quick runs aided by three errors in the first inning.
The Captains came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Nathan Lukes led off the inning smacking his second home run of the season over the right field fence. Willi Castro followed with a single to the right side of the infield. After Tyler Krieger struck out Francisco Mejia grounded and Castro moved to second base. Connor Marabell who was snubbed by Midwest League managers and not named to the All-Star team doubled to left field driving in Castro to cut the Lugnuts lead to 4-2. Sam Haggerty who committed a double error in the top of the first inning then came to the plate and singled to right field driving home Marabell with the Captains third run.
Marabell entered Wednesday's game with a .328 average, 4 home runs, 33 RBI and a .893 OPS (first in the Midwest League). Meanwhile Andrew Guillotte of Lansing’s stats are not even comparable to Marabell’s. Guillotte’s average is .267, 2 home runs, 25 RBI and a .702 OPS, yet Guillotte’s is the Eastern Division reserve outfielder.
The Captains bat continued their barrage in the second inning as they added four more runs including a three run home run by Francisco Mejia. The home run for Mejia was his third of the season. Marabell also had a single in the inning.
The Lugnuts fought back in the top of the third when they put five runs on the board. The big blow in the inning was a two run home run by Lane Thomas. The home run was Thomas's fifth of the season and second in two games.
The Captains got a run back to close to within 9-8 in the bottom of the third inning. The run came when Jose Medina doubled with two outs. Lukes then drove home Medina.
Two more Captains errors in the top of the fourth inning led to another Lansing run as they extended their lead to 10-8.
The Lugnuts put another run on the board in the top of the sixth when with two outs Jake Thomas singled off Captains reliever Brock Hartson. Carl Wise then roped a double to left field and Thomas scored the 11th run of the game for the Lugnuts.
The Captains came back in the bottom of the sixth inning with two more runs. Mejia and the all-star snubbed Marabell had RBI singles in the inning to pull the Captains to within one run of the Lugnuts at 11-10.
Finally in the bottom of the eighth inning the Captains bats matched the second inning with four runs. The big blow in the inning came with bases loaded (Krieger, Mejia, and Haggerty) and two outs, Martin Cervenka singled to center field and Krieger and Mejia scored, giving the Captains the 12-11 lead.
The Lugnuts threatened in the ninth inning adding a run to close to within two runs at 14-12, but that was it as Billy Strode threw one pitch to record the save. The save for Strode was his first of the season.
Hartson picked up the win pitching five and two thirds innings allowing only three runs, two earned allowing five base hits. He also issued two base on balls and struck out two. With the win Hartson improves to 5-2 with a 2.66 ERA.
Dan Lietz was tagged with the loss for Lansing and he falls to 4-1 with a 5.53 ERA.
The Captains and Lugnuts will finish up their three game series on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Angel Perdomo will make the start for Lansing. Perdomo is 2-1 with a 1.28 ERA. Matt Esparza will take the mound for Lake County. Esparza, a righty is 6-2 with a 3.63. .
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 06/08/2016 17:00
