A Fantastic Fight to the Finish
DAYTON, OHIO - For the second night in a row, the Loons squandered an early lead, but on Tuesday, the birds trumped the Dragons with a four-run rally in the ninth inning to win 8-7 at Fifth Third Field.
The Loons scored a run in both the first and second innings, just like Monday night, only to have Dayton roar ahead.
Starting pitcher Matt Shelton, a knuckleballer, battled his command in the second. The righty faced 11 batters and issued five walks as the Dragons scored five runs to leap in front.
After an RBI single by Narciso Crook in the third made the score 6-2, field manager Luis Matos pulled the plug on Shelton and turned to the bullpen.
Righty Matt Campbell was more than up to the challenge and allowed just one base hit over 2.2 innings. The Loons caught their breath and drew closer on a two-run home run down the left field line by Julian Leon in the sixth to make the score 6-4. The blast, Leon's second of the season, left the yard with two outs off lefty reliever Mike Sullivan.
After Campbell exited the game, fellow righty David Reid-Foley (W, 2-1) trotted down from the pen and faced the minimum over the course of his first two innings.
Dayton finally reached the Loons bullpen in the bottom of the eighth. The Loons initially avoided trouble when Alex Verdugo threw out Crook at the plate for the first out, but the Dragons tallied an ostensibly valuable insurance run on Ronald Bueno's RBI single that gave Dayton a 7-4 edge. On the play, Bueno was erased via an 8-2-4 put-out at second for the second out of the frame.
The run still counted and the Loons sat in a three-run hole to start the ninth against right-hander Conor Krauss. Three singles later, the Loons had cut the deficit to 7-5 on Verdugo's RBI base knock, his fourth hit of the night.
Out of the bullpen came righty Brian Hunter (L 5-3), who had not allowed a run in June and held a season ERA of 1.88. On the final night of the month, two Loons' newcomers tattooed his line with two key hits to catapult the Loons into the lead.
Lefty Matt Beaty fouled off multiple offerings from Hunter and then punched the ball into the opposite field to score Jimmy Allen and bring the Loons within a run.
On the next pitch, Kyle Garlick, in his second game as a Loon, smoked a ball to deep right center field that cleared the bases and gave the Loons a startling 8-7 lead.
Right-hander James Campbell (S, 1), in his second appearance of the season after an injury sidelined him in extended spring training, closed out the Dragons in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side in order.
The Loons (41-33; 3-3) racked up 17 hits and won for the third time on a Tuesday in 2015. They have the chance to take the series Wednesday at 7 p.m. with right-hander Trevor Oaks starting on the hill. Dayton (42-34; 3-3) falls to 23-14 at home and lost for the second time at Fifth Third Field when scoring four or more runs. The Dragons will start right-hander Wyatt Strahan in the rubber match.
Great Lakes returns to Dow Diamond on Thursday, July 2 for a brief two-game series against the West Michigan Whitecaps.
The Great Lakes Loons are a ninth-year Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. For tickets and more information about the Loons, visit Loons.com, or call 989-837-BALL.