Lake County Sentinel
Captains late inning heroics lead to 3-2 win
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains and Dayton Dragons got back to baseball on Thursday night at Classic Park after Wednesday night’s game was postponed due to rain. Baseball sometimes is a game of patience for players and fans, and it paid off tonight as the Captains trailed 2-0 for most of the game but came out on top 3-2 sending the 2,504 fans in attendance home happy.
The Dragons only runs of the game came in the first inning off Captains starter Aaron Davenport. After striking out the Dragons leadoff hitter Justice Thompson swinging Elly De La Cruz doubled to right field. With Daniel Vellojin at the plate Davenport uncorked a wild pitch and De La Cruz moved to third base. After striking out Vellojin the big blow in the inning came when Ruben Ibarra the Dragons 6’5, 290 lb. first baseman blasted a Davenport pitch over the left field wall giving the Dragons an early 2-0 lead.
Dragons’ starter Christian Roa maintained the lead throughout his five-shutout innings. He allowed only four hits and four free passes while striking out six Captains. Jacques Pucheu replaced Roa to start the sixth inning and ran into trouble in the seventh.
The bottom of the seventh began with Milan Tolentino singling to right field. Tolentino moved to second base when Joe Naranjo singled sharply to left field. Pucheu then retired both Alexfri Planez and Petey Halpin on strikes. Jonathan Rodriguez then belted his 10th home run of season deep over the center field fence just right of the pitch clock to give the Captains a 3-2 lead. The long ball was also Rodriguez’s fourth home run of the season against the Dragons. With the strike out in the inning Planez’s 22 game hitting streak ended with an 0-2, but he did maintain his on base streak which is now at 23 games.
Raymond Burgos who pitched two innings clean inning in relief with two strike outs improves to 4-2 with a 2.45 ERA. Trey Benton picked up the save pitching a scoreless ninth inning issuing one base on balls and striking out one to record his fourth save of the season with Lake County. Pucheu took the loss for the Dragons and falls to 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA.
The two teams will play game four of the series on Friday night at 7 pm. The Dragons will send Evan Kravetz a lefthander to the mound. Kravetz, a fifth-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in the 2019 June Draft out of Rice University is 4-3 with a 4.13 ERA. The Captains have not announced a starter due to a fluid roster situation at this time..
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POSTED 07/14/2022 21:46
Lake County Captains Left Fielder Jonathan Rodriguez. Photo by Tim Shirer
