(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains returned home on Tuesday night to begin a six game homestand against the Lansing Lugnuts (Oakland Athletics). The Captains are returning from Dayton where they played a seven-game series winning for of the seven games. The Captains sent the 2,378 in attendance at Classic Park home happy with a 4-2 win..

(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains returned home on Tuesday night to begin a six game homestand against the Lansing Lugnuts (Oakland Athletics). The Captains are returning from Dayton where they played a seven-game series winning for of the seven games. The Captains sent the 2,378 in attendance at Classic Park home happy with a 4-2 win.

Through the first three innings Lansing starter Jake Walkinshaw was shutting out the Captains. Walkinshaw allowed only three hits and struck out three on 32 pitch which 25 were strikes.

Walkinshaw is returning from an unknown injury and the A’s Organization is bring him back slowly. Lefty Mac Lardner relieved Walkinshaw to start the fourth inning and that’s when the fun began for Lake County.

Joe Naranjo greeted Lardner by drawing a base on balls. Alexfri Planez then smashed a double to rightfield and Naranjo moved to third base. Petey Halpin who has been in a season long slump entering the game hitting .214 with one home run and ten RBI lined laser shot that bounced around the right field home bullpen driving home Naranjo and Planez and Halpin circled the bases for an inside the park home run. Lansing right field Lawrence Butler raised his hands claiming the balls was unreachable in the bullpen area, but base umpire Nathaniel Diederich overruled him signaling home run after Halpin was already in the Captains dugout celebrating the accomplishment with his teammates. After Lardner retired the next two Captains on strikes Gabriel Rodriguez smacked his sixth home run of the season over the left field fence extending the Captains lead to 4-0.

The Lugnuts got on the board in the sixth inning when Tyler Soderstrom blasted his 12th home run of the season over the right field fence cutting the Captains lead to 4-1.

The Lugnuts closed to within two runs in the seventh inning when Davis Sharpe who came on in relief of Captains starter Tanner Bibee to start the sixth inning recorded the first out and then allowed consecutive singles to Euribiel Angeles and Drew Swift. Angeles end up on third after the Swift single. Butler then flew out to left field driving home Angeles closing the gap to 4-2 and that’s as close as it got as Sharpe got out of the inning with any further damage.

Bibee picked up the win for Lake County pitching five shut out innings allowing just five hits. He issued one base on balls and struck out seven in the win. With the win he improves to 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA. Jordan Jones pitched the final two innings for Lake County giving up one hit and one base on ball on the way to earning his third save of the season. Lardner took the loss in five innings of work. With the loss he falls to 2-2 with a 4.18 ERA.

The Captains and Lugnuts will play game two of the series on Wednesday night at 7 pm. Stevie Emanuels will take the mound for the Lugnuts. Emanuels, a righthander is 3-7 with a 5.06 ERA. Aaron Davenport will be on the mound for Lake County. Davenport, also a righthander is 2-4 with a 3.45 ERA.

tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @TBBucsTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page

POSTED 06/28/2022 22:18

Lake County Captains .Petey Halpin. Photo by Tim Shirer