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Lake County Sentinel
Captains late rally falls short in 6-5 loss to River Bandits       
​     BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains returned home on Tuesday night to open a six game homestand. The first three against the Quad Cities River Bandits (Houston Astros). The Captains fell a little short 6-5 as their late comeback was not enough, sending the 1,063 fans at Classic Park home disappointed.

Things got off to a bit of a rocky start for Captains starting pitcher Shane McCarthy as he hit the first batter, he faced Alex McKenna with a pitch. Enmanuel Valdez then singled to right field and McKenna moved to second. The bases were then loaded when Jeremy Pena drew a base on balls to load the bases.

  Jonathan Lacroix then grounded out to first base and McKenna crossed home plate with the first run of the game giving the River Bandits a 1-0 lead. Scott Schreiber also followed with a ground out and Valdez scored Quad Cities second run.

The River Bandits added to their lead in the top of the third inning when Scott Schreiber smacked a three-run home run. The home run was Schreiber’s second of the season.

Quad Cities added a sixth run in the sixth inning when Cesar Salazar took Captains reliever Eli Lingos deep on the first pitch he threw. The long ball was Salazar’s first of the season.

The Captains got on the board in the bottom seventh inning when Mitch Reeves led off the inning reaching first base on a fielding error by the second baseman Enmanuel Valdez. Jesse Berardi then doubled and moved Reeves to third base. Reeves then crossed the plate when Quad Cities reliever Jonathan Bermudez uncorked a wild pitch. Berardi moved to third base. Bermudez then issued back to back base on balls to Connor Smith and Hosea Nelson to load the bases. That was the end of the night for Bermudez as he was relieved by Devin Conn. Conn did not get off to a good start as he issued a base o balls to Tyler Freeman and Berardi came home with the Captains second run. They were not done. Will Benson came up and followed the script by drawing a base on balls of his own scoring Smith to cut the lead to three at 6-3. After Ruben Cardenas struck out for the first out of the inning Miguel Jerez singled to left field driving home Nelson and Freeman and closing the gap to one run at 6-5.

McCarthy took the loss for Lake County. He went five innings allowing five runs, all earned on five hits. He also issued two base on balls and struck out nine River Bandits. With the loss he falls to 2-2 with a 3.33 ERA. Austin Hansen made the start for Quad Cities and picked up the win. Hansen went five innings allowing just three hits, he issued two base on balls and struck out four. With the win Hansen improves to 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA.

The two teams will play game two of the series on Wednesday Night at 6:30 p.m. R.J. Freure will take the mound for the River Bandits. Freure is 1-0 with a 0.63 ERA. Righthander Alex Royalty will be on the hill for the Captains. Royalty is 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA. 
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page
​POSTED 04/30/2019 21:34
Lake County Captains first baseman Mitch Reeves.
Photo by Tim Shirer