Dragons Break Tie in 8th, Win 5-4

Dragons 5, Lake County 4
Lake County (R-H-E): 4-10-3
Dayton (R-H-E): 5-10-0
Win: Dauri Moreta (1-0)
Loss: Kyle Nelson (3-1)
Save: John Ghyzel (8)
HR: Dayton: None
HR: Lake County: None
Dayton, Ohio-Dayton's John Sansone drove in the tie-breaking run with a hit in the eighth inning and left fielder Stuart Fairchild made a great game-ending diving catch as the Dragons held on to defeat the Lake County Captains 5-4 on Wednesday night. The Dragons have won five of their last six games. A crowd of 7,428 was in attendance at Fifth Third Field.
With the scored tied 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, Fairchild lined a double to left field. Sansone followed with a line drive hit to left that easily scored Fairchild to give the Dragons a 5-4 lead.
Lake County got a lead-off single in the ninth inning from Tyler Friis against Dragons reliever John Ghyzel, but Ghyzel retired the next two hitters with Friis remaining at first base. J.J. Berardi hit a line drive toward left-center field. Fairchild got an excellent jump on the ball off the bat and left his feet to make the catch and end the game. Ghyzel picked up his eighth save to take over the league lead.
Lake County jumped out to a 2-0 lead with two runs in the second inning. The Dragons battled back, scoring a single run in the bottom of the second when Fairchild reached on an infield single, stole second, and scored on a base hit by Hendrik Clementina. In the third, the Dragons tied the game. With two outs, Jeter Downs walked and then scored all the way from first base on a base hit to right field by Andy Sugilio that was mishandled by Lake County's Will Benson to make it 2-2.
Lake County regained the lead in the top of the seventh with two runs, but the Dragons answered with two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 4-4.
Dragons starting pitcher Tyler Mondile worked the first five innings, allowing two runs on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts. Reliever Dauri Moreta (1-0) retired all five batters he faced to earn the win.
The Dragons collected 10 hits. Fairchild and Sugilio each had two. Fairchild's double was the Dragons only extra base hit.

Notes: Wednesday's victory marked the ninth time this season that the Dragons have scored the eventual winning run in their final offensive inning of the game…A total of 17 of the Dragons 23 wins have been come-from-behind victories…The Dragons improved their home record to 17-8…A Dayton win on Thursday will get the Dragons back to three games above the .500 mark for the first time since before the start of their four-game series in Lansing May 14-17 when they opened the set with an 18-15 record and dropped all four contests.
In the Standings: The Dragons are 23-21, in fourth place, five games behind first place Lansing and four and one-half games behind Bowling Green, the wildcard leader, in the Midwest League East Division.   
Up Next: The Dragons close out the four-game series with the Captains on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Fifth Third Field. Hunter Greene (0-3, 10.06) will start for Dayton against Lake County's Nick Gallagher (0-1, 4.67).
Game Broadcast: All Dragons games are broadcast on radio on Fox Sports 980 WONE and on the internet at wone.com. Games are also available on the Dayton Dragons mobile app.
For Dragons 2018 ticket information, call (937) 228-2287.