Stevens Clubs 8th Homer in 5-1 Loss

FORT WAYNE, IN - Combined through the first two games in this series, that’s 20 innings, not a single pitch was thrown by either team in which the TinCaps held the lead… Yet the series was tied. Well Thursday night was a different story as Fort Wayne led from the first inning on.

Miguel Cienfuegos was stellar are the mound, giving the TinCaps a second straight quality start as he went six innings allowing just one run on three hits.

His offense staked him a 2-0 lead in the first innings after Luis Devers began his outing with six-straight balls. Kai Murphy began with a walk, moved up to second on a passed ball, then scored on a one-out single from Homer Bush Jr. Devin Ortiz was the hero for Fort Wayne in game two and his two-out single gave the home team the early 2-0 advantage.

Devers settles in and retired nine of the next 10 batters after the Ortiz single.

Meanwhile the Cubs got on the board as Felix Stevens belted a homer to left that led the bat at 113 mph and cut the deficit in half to leadoff the second inning.

South Bend’s best chance to claw back further came when they still trailed 2-1 in the fourth. Rival Garcia smacked a single up the middle to leadoff the inning and extend his hit streak to 13 games. Jefferson Rojas drilled a sharp single into left immediately after to set the table for the middle of the lineup. But Stevens grounded into a double play and Jordan Nwogu grounded out to short to end the threat.

After Rojas’ single the Cubs wouldn’t manage another hit for the next five innings against Cienfuegos, Ruben Galíndo, and David Morgan.

Griffin Doersching knocked a solo shot over the wall in left off Devers with two outs in the fifth to make it 3-1 and Fort Wayne plated two runs in the eighth after the first two batters were retired to put the game away. Bush, Jay Beshears, and Ortiz all picked up consecutive hits to put the deficit for the Cubs at 5-1.

Both teams now sit with records of 14-22 heading into Friday night’s matchup.