Lugs' 8th-inning rally stuns Cubs, ends skid

LANSING, Mich. - By mandate of manager John Schneider, the Lansing Lugnuts showed up unusually late, arriving only two hours before Saturday's series opener with the South Bend Cubs. The offense showed up late during the game as well, but they showed up when it counted.

The Lugnuts (27-27, 63-61) halted a four-game losing streak with a wild five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning, surprising the Cubs (35-19, 76-47), 5-2, before a roaring crowd of 8,404 at Cooley Law School Stadium.

Lansing's lead for the Eastern Division's second and final playoff berth grew back to 1.5 games over the Great Lakes Loons, 5-2 losers at Bowling Green.

The Cubs grabbed a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning against Lugnuts starter Jordan Romano, scoring runs on a balk and an error at home plate by catcher Ryan Hissey.

South Bend starter Justin Steele tossed six scoreless innings, keeping the Lugs off balance, and reliever Carson Sands followed with two strikeouts in a perfect seventh.

That led to the eighth.

Guillotte worked a one-out walk from Sands (Loss, 7-3), dashing to third on a John La Prise single. Ryan Hissey followed with a double down the first base line, bringing in Guillotte and bringing the Cubs' lead down to 2-1.

After a Juan Kelly groundout, South Bend called in reliever Jared Cheek. Cheek tossed his first two pitches past Lane Thomas, but then bounced a slider away from catcher Sam Tidaback, scoring La Prise with the game-tying run.

Thomas coaxed a walk from Cheek, putting runners at the corners, and Justin Atkinson drilled a two-run triple to right-center for a 4-2 lead. One more run-scoring wild pitch later, and the Lugnuts had wrapped things up nicely.

On the pitching side for Lansing, Romano pitched 5 1/3 innings, Dan Lietz took care of 2 1/3 scoreless innings, Daniel Young (Win, 1-1) recorded the final out of the eighth inning, and Andrew Case (Save, 7) nailed down a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.

Atkinson, Kelly and La Prise all notched two hits for the Lugnuts, and Thomas drew a pair of walks to aid the offense.

The middle affair of the three-game series is at 7:05 p.m. Saturday: Lugnut Charities Night presented by Dan Henry Distributing, featuring the Lugnuts' Charity Jersey Auction and postgame LAFCU Fireworks! Left-hander Jose Paulino (2-0, 2.16) starts for South Bend against Lansing left-hander Angel Perdomo (3-7, 3.24). For more information or to purchase your tickets, call 517-485-4500 or visit lansinglugnuts.com.

 

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