Captains hold off Lugnuts for 5-4 win

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Lake County Sentinel

Captains hold off Lugnuts for 5-4 win

BY TIM SHIRER

CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER

(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains and Lansing Lugnuts played game three of their four game series on Thursday night. Game two was a 4:26 long extra inning affair that the Captains lost in 10 innings 10-8. Thursday night was a bit of a back and forth game which the Captains took control of in the middle and nearly let slip away late but held on to win 5-4 sending the 1,948 fans at Classic Park.

The Lugnuts got on the board in the first inning to take an early 2-0 lead off Captains starter Zach Draper. Draper a lefty didn’t give up another run allowing only five hits in six innings of work. He issued two base on balls and struck eight Lugnuts. Two runs for the Lugnuts came on a two-run home run by Griffin Conine. Conine is the Toronto Blue Jays 16th ranked prospect and is destined for a long big-league career. The home run was his 16th of the season, he is hitting .282 with 43 RBI.

The Captains tied the game in the fourth inning with two runs. The runs came on RBI singles by Josh Rolette and Miguel Jerez.

The Captains took the lead in the sixth inning with two more runs. This time Connor Smith drove in the first run of the inning on a single and Rolette drove in the second run on another single giving the Captains a 4-2 lead.

The final run for Lake County came in the seventh inning when Jose Fermin singled and drove home Bo Naylor who had singled earlier in the inning. The Captains led 5-2. The Captains had 14 hits in the game, all singles. Fermin and Jerez led the way with three hits apiece. Naylor, Jonathan Engelmann and Smith had two hits each.

The Lugnuts rallied but it fell shorts as they scored two runs in the ninth inning.

Draper picked up the win for Lake County and improves to 7-2 with a 2.65 ERA. Lugnuts reliever Troy Miller took the loss. Miller pitched two innings allowing three runs, all earned on seven hits. He also issued a base on balls. With the loss Miller falls to 4-6 with a 5.16 ERA.

The Captains and Lugnuts will finish the series on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. Righthander Troy Miller will take the mound for Lansing. Miller is 4-5 with a 4.93 ERA. Lefty Matt “Shaggy” Turner will be on the hill for the Captains. Turner is 1-0 with a 2.53 ERA.