Lake County Sentinel
Captains pounded by TinCaps 14-8
BY TIM SHIRER
CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER
(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains entered Thursday night’s game three of their series with the Fort Wayne TinCaps at Classic Park with a Magic Number of two to clinch the Midwest League Eastern Division Second have title. The number will remain at two as the Captains were pounded by the TinCaps 14-8.
The TinCaps in no way wanted the Captains to clinch a playoff spot against them at least on Thursday night as their bats were on fir from the first inning on, including a seven run third inning knocking Captains starter Jaime Arias out of the game. Arias pitched two and two thirds’ innings allowing nine runs, all earned on 10 hits. He issued two base on balls and struck out two TinCaps in his short night of work.
The TinCaps scored at least one run in each of the first six innings. Lenny Torres who entered in relief of Arias gave up two runs in one and one thirds innings and Matt Turner followed Torres and gave up three runs in two innings of work. Only two of Turner’s three runs were earned.
Zach Hart entered the game in the seventh inning and became the first hurler of the night for Lake County to put up a scoreless frame. Jack DeGroat then followed Hart and duplicated his feat to keep the score at 14-2 entering the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Captains did manage to put together a couple rallies one in the fourth inning when they scored twice. Korey Holland and Connor Kokx both drove in runs. The second rally came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Joe Naranjo doubled to the left field wall with the bases loaded. Then Micael Ramirez doubled to left field driving home Naranjo to pull the Captains within eight runs at 14-6.
The Captains added two runs in the ninth inning when Aaron Bracho singled, moved to second a wild pitch and finally hit a deep sacrifice fly to left field and Bracho scored the Captains seventh run. Zac Fascia then doubled with two outs and was driven home when Christian Cairo singled cutting the Fort Wayne lead to 14-8.
Ryan Bergert picked up the win for the TinCaps pitching five innings allowing two runs, both earned on three hits. He also struck out six Captains batters and issued one base on balls. With the win Bergert improves 4-10 with a 5.84. Arias took the loss for Lake County and falls to 1-4 with a 5.56 ERA.
The West Michigan Whitecaps who are now one game behind Lake County in the Midwest League Eastern Division standing beat the Great Lake Loons on Thursday night 7-6.
The two teams will play game four of the series on Friday Night at 6:35 pm. Jose Espada will be on the mound for the TinCaps. Espada, a righthander is 1-3 with a 3.82 ERA. The Captains will send Tommy Mace to the hill. Mace, also a righthander is 1-5 with a 4.63 ERA.
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POSTED 09/08/2022 21:37
Lake County Captains Tommy Mace. Photo by Tim Shirer
