West Michigan's Soto shuts down Captains

(Eastlake, OH) - Gregory Soto silenced the Lake County Captains (16-25) on Saturday night at Classic Park. The left-hander struck out a career-high 12 over seven innings and led the West Michigan Whitecaps (28-14) to a 6-2 victory over Lake County.
Soto started his night strong. The Whitecaps' starter struck out three in the first and worked out of trouble, leaving runners stranded on the corners. Two innings later, Soto struck out three more and left a baserunner on second. Soto went on to record two more multi-strikeout innings, fanning two in the sixth and two again in the seventh.

Lake County threatened on several occasions against Soto, but the Captains could only manage one run against the southpaw over seven frames. The Captains' only run against Soto came in the second when Conner Capel doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out by Jose Vicente. Otherwise, Soto left runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth.
The Whitecaps' offense handed Soto early runs with a slew of doubles. West Michigan doubled three times in the second inning and scored two runs. Blaise Salter led off with a double and Danny Pinero and Drew Longley hit back-to-back RBI doubles to give the Whitecaps a 2-0 lead.
Capel scored in the bottom of the second to trim the Whitecaps' lead to just one run, but West Michigan expanded its lead in the fifth. After Longley singled, Anthony Pereira bunted toward first. Pereira's bunt pulled Vicente too far off the base and his flip to pitcher Aaron Civale covering the bag went wild, allowing Pereira to reach safely and Longley to advance to third. Danny Woodrow singled home Longley and a sacrifice fly by Jake Robson scored Pereira later in the frame to give the Whitecaps a 4-1 lead.
The Whitecaps scored two more runs in the seventh. West Michigan loaded the bases on a single and two walks. Robson then hit a grounder to second that was too slow for the Captains to turn two, which allowed Longley to score on a fielder's choice. Salter then singled home Woodrow to push the Whitecaps' advantage to 6-1.
Lake County rallied in the ninth, but it was too little, too late. Capel led off with a double against reliever Jason Foley and moved to third on a balk. Foley walked Vicente and Todd Isaacs hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Capel. With two outs and Vicente on second, Trenton Brooks struck out on a pitch in the dirt, but the ball skipped to the backstop. Brooks raced to first on a wild pitch and Vicente moved to third. The Captains needed just one more man to reach base to bring the tying run to the plate, but Foley got Alexis Pantoja to ground out to second to end the ballgame.
Soto (4-0) earned the win. In addition to his career-high 12 strikeouts, the lefty allowed just five hits and did not walk a batter. Soto worked seven innings and surrendered just one run.
Civale (2-3) took the loss, allowing five runs over 6.1 innings. The right-hander gave up nine hits, struck out three and walked one.
The Captains have lost two of the first three against West Michigan and will try to split the four-game series in the finale on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 PM.
Individual game tickets for all Captains games are on sale at the Classic Park box office, online at captainsbaseball.com and by phone at 440-954-WINS (9467). Full season tickets plans, 12-, 20-, and 35-game mini ticket plans for the 2017 season are on sale now at great prices complete with several exclusive benefits. Information can be found at the Captains website www.captainsbaseball.com.