Lake County Sentinel
Cubs outlast Captains 7-6
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
Wednesday night The Lake County Captains returned home after a two city, seven game road trip in which they went 3-4. They welcomed the South Ben Cubs to town. The Cubs held off Lake County 7-6.
The Cubs slowly but surely built a lead, scoring single runs in four of the first five innings to build a 4-1 lead.
The Captains run came in the third inning when Luke Wakamatsu and Alexis Pantoja started the inning with back to back singles. Wakamatsu moved to third on the Pantoja single. Following a strike out by Mitch Longo, Li-Jen Chu grounded out to the third baseman and Wakamatsu scored the Captains first run, cutting the lead to 4-1.
The Cubs added three more runs in the sixth inning. One of the runs in the inning came off Captains starting pitcher Justin Garza, the other two off reliever Cesar Ventura.
The Captains made things interesting in the eighth inning when they put four runs on the board off Cubs reliever Matt Swarmer. The first run of the inning came when Pantoja doubled and scored when Longo singled. Chu then reached on a fielder’s choice and Longo moved to second base. Conner Capel then reached first base on a fielder’s choice, Chu was out at second base and Longo moved to third base. Jose Medina then had the big blow of the inning when he smacked his ninth home run of the season over the right-center field fence, to pull the Captains to within two runs at 7-5.
The Captains added a run in the ninth inning when Jorma Rodriguez singled and was driven home on a doubled by Wakamatsu as the rally fell just short as Wakamatsu was left stranded at third base to end the game.
Garza went five and two thirds innings allowing five runs, four earned on 10 hits. He also issued a base on balls and struck out three Cubs. Garza suffered the loss and falls to 2-6 with a 6.16 ERA.
Tyler Peyton picked up the win for the Cubs and improves to 3-3 with a 3.74 ERA. Peyton went five innings allowing one run, it was earned on five hits. He issued two base on balls and struck out four Captains hitters.
The clubs will play game two of the three game series on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Bryan Hudson will be on the hill for the Cubs. Hudson, a lefty is 5-3 with a 4.14 ERA. Luis Jimenez will make the start for the Captains. Jimenez, a righty is 2-4 with a 4.89 ERA.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page
POSTED 08/02/2017 22:17
Captains Second Baseman Alexis Pantoja. Photo by Greg Goth
