Lake County Sentinel
Captains use graduation ceremony to propel team to 6-1 win over Loons
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
(EASTLAKE, OH) – The Lake County Captains and Great lakes Loons played game three of their six game series on Thursday night. The first two games the Loons were not very good guests as they outscored the host Captains 21-9 winning the first two games. Tonight’s game was a different story as the Captains defeated the Loons 6-1 sending the Classic Park crowd of 1,367 home happy.
Prior to the game three Captains players Jerson Ramirez, Jhonkensy Noel and Wilfri Peralta who had completed their high school courses received their high school diplomas from Captains manager Greg DiCenzo, Cleveland Indians Education Language Coordinator Anna Bolton, and Tribe President Chris Antonetti. DiCenzo remarked after game when asked about the ceremony, “It’s a big deal and I’ve talked about that today, even at third base with Jhonkensy, I just congratulated him again, I congratulated all of these guys.” He went on to say, “They are some of my favorite people. At the end of the day, they can’t take that away from them. “Whether they play 20 years in the big leagues or their next ceremony in front of people is at the hall of fame in Cooperstown no one is going to be able to take that sheet away from them.” He finished by saying, “I was really proud of them. I haven’t known them as long as Anna and Chris for that matter who have been around a long time in the Indians organization, but I feel like I’m at home here and part of that is because of guys like that. And you saw it here today, guys that care about each other and they care about the right things and I’m so happy to be part of it.”
The Captains took the lead for the first time in the series in the bottom of the third inning when Raynel Delgado led off the inning by drawing a base on balls. After Joe Donovan struck out swinging Delgado stole second base. It was his 13th stolen base of the year. Julian Escobedo followed with his own swinging strike out. Christian Cairo drew a base on balls to put men on first and second. With Jose Tena at the plate Loons starter Hyun-II Choi balked and the runners moved up to second and third. Tena then singled to right field. Delgado and Cairo came home with the Captains first two runs. Tena moved to third on an error by Loons right fielder Andy Pages. Pages woes were just beginning.
The Captains added their third run in bottom of the fourth inning when Bobby Bradley playing his third game in his rehab assignment from Cleveland drew a base on balls to lead off the inning. Jhonkensy Noel then singled left field and Bradley moved to second base. Bradley then scored when Jonathan Rodriguez flew out to right field and who, but Pages struck again as he made an errant throw to second base which ended up in foul territory down the left field line and Bradley hustled home give the Captains a 3-0 lead. Pages was not done.
The Captains blew the game open in the seventh inning when Delgado drew a base on balls to lead off the inning off Loon’s reliever Mike Mokma. Julian Escobedo then tripled to right field when Pages fell chasing the ball. Delgado scored the Captains fourth run on the fall. At that point Mokma was pulled and relieved by Jose Hernandez. Christian Cairo greeted him with a hard single driving home Escobedo with the Captains fifth run. Hernandez then hit Tena with a pitch moving Cairo to second base. Cairo and Tena then stole second and third base. The theft for Cairo was his first and Tena’s was number 10. Naranjo then drew a base on balls. Naranjo came in as a defensive replacement for Bradley. With the bases now loaded Hernandez uncorked a wild pitch and Cairo came across the plate with the Captains sixth and final run of the contest.
With the Captains offense breaking out it overshadowed the performance by Captains starting pitcher, righthander Xzavion Curry and the bullpen. Curry picked up the win going five and one third shut out innings allowing only three hits and one base on balls while striking out four Loons hitters. With the win Curry improves to 5-1 with a 2.62 ERA. Ramirez came in to punch out the final two Loons batters with bases loaded to preserve the 6-1 Captains win. The save for the recent graduate was his 11th since joining Lake county on July 2nd.
The Captains and Loons will play game four of the series on Friday night at 7 p.m. Logan Boyer will be on the mound for the Loons. Boyer, a righthander is 0-2 with a 4.88 ERA. The Captains will have Aaron Civale on the mound. The Cleveland Indians righthander will be making his second rehab appearance in his recovery from a sprained middle finger on his pitching hand which occurred on June 22 against the Chicago Cubs. Civale pitched for Lake County in 2017 and was 2-4 with a 4.58 ERA. This will be his first start for Lake County during the rehab, his first start of the rehab was with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks on Sunday.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @TBBucsTim Check out our IndiansNation fan Page
POSTED 08/26/2021 23:12
Lake County Captains players Jerson Ramirez, Jhonkensy Noel, Wilfri Peralta, Cleveland Indians Language Development Coordinator Anna Bolton, Indians President Chris Antonetti and Captains Manager Greg DiCenzo. Photo by Tim Shirer
