Eastlake, OH - In the final game of the home stand The Lake County Captains (14-17) took on the formidable Great Lakes Loons (18-14) at Classic Park on a beautiful, sunny, 75 degree day. For the Captains Tommy Mace (0-1. 4.58 ERA) started, while Nick Nastrini (0-0, 2.30 ERA) was on the mound the Loons.
The Loons picked up right were they left off the previous night and top prospect 3B Eddys Leonard homered to left off of Mace giving the Loons a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st.
The Captains came back in the bottom of the inning. 3B Jhonkesny Noel hit a double to right center with 2 outs, then followed it up by stealing 3rd. Next up to the plate was clean up hitter, LF Johnathon Rodriguez crushed a fastball deep to straight center field and over the wall for a massive 2-run homer to give the captains the lead 2-1.
In the top of the 3rd Tommy Mace gave up a single to Loons 1B Imanol Vargas, hit LF Jonny DeLuca in the back sending him to first, then gave up a 3-run homer again to Eddys Leonard. His second of the day and 4th RBI. Mace was taken out with 1 out in the top of the 3rd and replaced by Alaska Abney (1-1, 6.97 ERA). CF Ismael Alcantara added to the Loons lead with a sacrifice fly extending their lead to 5-2
3B Jhonskensy Noel bombed a homer to deep center, a solo shot in the bottom of the 3rd cutting into the lead 5-3. That was Noel's 8th home run of the season.
Lenny Torres (1-0, 4.91 ERA) relieved Abney to start the top of the 4th. Loons Eddys Leonard hit a single with 2 on and 1 out in the top of the 4th, giving him his third hit and fifth RBI of the day.
Nick Nastrini was relived in the bottom of the 4th for the Loons by Julian Smith (2-0, 2.20 ERA) after Nastrini walked Captains C Micael Ramirez and gave up a double to DH Gabriel Rodriguez. With runners on 2nd and 3rd CF Korey Holland drilled a double down the left field line tying the game at 6-6.
Top of the 5th saw Loons Alcantara reach base on a throwing error by Captains SS Raynel Delgado and a single by RF Edwin Mateo advanced the runner to 3rd. a wild pitch Torres allowed Alcantara to score and once again give the Loons the lead 7-6. With Mateo on first base, 1B Imanol Vargas absolutely tattooed a ball over the indoor batting cage deep to right for a 2 run home run extending the lead to 9-6.
Kyle Hurt (0-0, 2.53 ERA) started on the mound for Great Lakes in the bottom of the 5th. After striking out the first Captains he faced DH Gabriel Rodriguez hit a solo home run to straight away center bringing the game back to 9-7.
Serafino Brito (0-1, 5.14 ERA) came in at the top of the 7th. After a hit batter and a single Loons 1B Imanol Vargas hit an RBI single. The only run of the inning, but again extending the Loons lead to 10-7.
Top of the 8th saw Robbie Peto in only his second game came in for Great Lakes in the top of the 8th. He hit Captains SS Delgado who was then knocked in by a Aaron Brancho double, once again bringing the Captains within two runs, 10-8.
Ryan Sublette was on the mound for Great Lakes in the bottom of the 8th. After striking out the first two batters, Jhonskensy Noel crushed a pitch deep to right center and over the advertisement board. His second home run and fourth hit of the game. Another solo home run bringing the game ever closer with the Loons still leading 10-9.
Jose Hernandez came into the game in the bottom of 9th for the Loons. Unfortunately the Captains didn't have a walk off in them today as the went down one, two, three. Dropping the final game in the series to Great Lakes. The Captains are 14-18 on the season.
The Captains had no quit in them today though. They hit 4 home runs and put up 9 runs in total.
After the game Coach Greg Dicenzo was encouraged by the offense.
"Hopefully that's a sign of things to come for us offensively. "Those were some big knocks in some big spots for us to come back." "Whenever we needed a big score we were able to answer".
The Captains won't be back at Classic Park until May 31st against the West Michigan Whitecaps.
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