Monster comeback narrowly falls short
(Burlington, IA) - The Lake County Captains (11-12, 38-54) came within just one run of completing their biggest comeback of the season on Sunday. Lake County trailed the Burlington Bees (10-14, 41-52) by six runs early, but stormed back and scored five runs from the sixth to the eighth. The
(Burlington, IA) - The Lake County Captains (11-12, 38-54) came within just one run of completing their biggest comeback of the season on Sunday. Lake County trailed the Burlington Bees (10-14, 41-52) by six runs early, but stormed back and scored five runs from the sixth to the eighth. The Captains' comeback effort, however, fell short in a 7-6 loss at Community Field.
Sunday's game began in strange fashion. The start of the game was delayed 15 minutes due to inclement weather and first pitch was thrown at 3:18 PM EST. Lake County started to rally, as
Burlington took control of the game after the delay. The Captains scored a run in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by
The Bees roared in front in the second with a six-run inning. After retiring the first two batters, Miniard walked Derek Jenkins and Jones. Fecteau then plated two runs with a single and Brennan Morgan followed with a run-scoring single.
Burlington had a big cushion and the Captains could not solve Bees starter Erik Manoah. The right-hander shut down the Captains over five innings and held Lake County to one unearned run on one hit. Capel led off the game with a single, but Manoah did not give up another hit the rest of his outing. Manoah (5-5) walked two batters, hit one and struck out a pair, eventually earning the win.
The Captains' comeback began against Burlington reliever Ty Barkell. Longo led off the sixth inning and reached base when Kadkhodaian dropped a pop up in no-man's land in shallow right field. Longo then stole second and scored on an RBI single by
Zac Ryan came in to pitch the eighth, but the Captains' bats remained hot and, once again, they capitalized on a costly error.
The Bees held on tight the rest of the way. Ryan stranded Wakamatsu on second base in the eighth, getting Longo to sky out to center. The right-hander then worked a one-two-three ninth inning to seal the win.
Miniard (2-9) took the loss for Lake County. He pitched 1.2 innings and allowed five runs, four of which were earned. The Bees tallied two hits against Miniard, who walked three, hit one batter and struck out one.
The Captains and Bees have split the first two games of their three-game series and will play the rubber game on Monday night. First pitch at Community Field is scheduled for 7:30 PM EST.
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). 12- and 20-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.