Lake County Sentinel
Captains end season with walk off win 4-3
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
The Lake County Captains and Lansing Lugnuts closed out the regular season at Classic Park today. The Captains ended the season in nice fashion with a walk off hit in the ninth inning defeating the Lugnuts 4-3.
The Lugnuts got on the board first with two runs in the fourth inning off Captains starter Trevor Foss. J.B. Woodman led off the inning with a single. With Lane Thomas at the plate, Woodman was caught stealing. Thomas then drew a base on balls. Connor Panas then came to the plate and deposited a home run over the right field fence, giving the Lugnuts a 2-0 lead.
Lake County got on the board in the seventh inning when David Armendariz singled to lead off the inning. Jose Medina followed with a single and Armendariz advanced to second base. Juan De La Cruz then laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to move both runners to second and third. Erlin Cerda then grounded out to the shortstop and Armendariz came home with the Captains first run.
The Captains, who had struggled offensively for most of the second half of the season came through in the eighth inning with two runs to take the lead. With one out in the inning Bobby Ison reached on a single to center field when Lansing center fielder Joshua Palacios lost the ball in the sun. Ison moved to second base when hot hitting Andrew Calica singled to right field. With Li-Jen Chu at the plate Ison and Calica pulled off a double steal, putting runners at second and third. The thefts for Ison and Calica were their sixth and first respectively. Chu then popped out to second base. Finally Armendariz singled on a line drive to center field and both runners scored giving the Captains a 3-2 lead.
Jon Fitzsimmons, came in to pitch the ninth inning. Things did not go well for the Canadian product as he gave up a solo home to Carl wise to tie the game. The home run for Wise was his fourth of the season.
The Captains were not through and ended the game in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth inning, after Juan De La Cruz drew a walk to lead off the inning. Cerda then executed a nice sacrifice bunt to move De La Cruz to second base. Then on a 1-0 count Angel Miguel drove a ball to center field that dropped and De La Cruz slid head first into home plate with the winning run sending the Captains into the offseason winners 4-3.
Lake County finished season with a record of 72-68 (40-30 first half, 32-38 second half). The record stand as the eighth best record in 14 years since the franchise moved to Lake County in 2003, with a .514 winning percentage.
The team finished with a team ERA of 3.86 which was 15 of 16 teams in the Midwest League. The staff ended the season with 1109 strike outs and issued 386 base on balls. Home runs were a problem as they allowed 97 on the season which was last, the next closest team had given up only 75.
On the offensive side of the ball the Captains finished with a team batting average of .255 which was good enough for sixth in the Midwest League. The team finished 8th in the league in runs scored with 573. The Captains belted 68 home runs which was good enough to finish 8th in the league.
The Captains will play next on April 6th 2017 in Dayton against the Dragons at 7:00 p.m. Pitchers for both are TBA.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 09/05/2016 16:34
