Loons Down Lugs with Sunday Shutout

MIDLAND, MI – In their 250th all-time matchup, the Great Lakes Loons (51-45) defeated the Lansing Lugnuts with a 5-0 shutout at Dow Diamond to take the series. Eddys Leonard recorded his second triple with Great Lakes for the only Loons extra-base hit of the day, also tying together the only multi-hit day to lead the GL offense.

The Great Lakes offense generated eight walks, with five combined between Ryan January and Jonny DeLuca. January walked in three of his four trips to the plate, striking out in his only official at-bat.

Lansing’s Cobie Vance doubled and singled three times on Sunday, leading all hitters with a 4-for-5 day. Great Lakes picked up their sixth shutout victory on Sunday, holding the Lugnuts 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Lugnuts starter Reid Birlingmair (L, 3-8) made his second start of the week against the Loons, finishing with a pair of earned runs and four walks in four innings. Jose Mora and Brock Whittlesey combined for the next three innings of relief for Lansing, combining for six strikeouts and two earned runs on three hits. Garrett Acton tossed the final eighth inning, striking out a batter in his lone inning.

Lefty starter Alec Gamboa matched his Tuesday start of two innings on Sunday, beginning the Sunday shutout with a walk and four strikeouts. Jose Rudolfo relieved Gamboa for the next two frames, now allowing a run to cross home on two hits and a walk.

In a bullpen day, Jose Hernandez struck out two batters in his lone inning in the fifth, followed by Mike Mokma’s (W, 5-4) 1 2/3 innings. Mokma struck out four batters and surrendered two hits in the Sunday win.

Kevin Malisheski entered for the final out of the seventh inning, allowing a single to William Simoneit before ending the seventh with a Jordan Diaz groundout. Malisheski allowed a leadoff walk to begin the eighth and allowed Patrick McColl to advance to third before a pair of pop outs and a strikeout to end his day.

Julian Smith made his second Loons appearance on Sunday, recording a strikeout and cementing the shutout after a leadoff double from Cobie Vance.

Playing in their 250th contest on Sunday, Great Lakes still trails Lansing in the all-time series, 126 games to 124. The Loons won their seventh series with the Sunday win, improving their record at Dow Diamond to 23-25.

Following an off-day on Monday, Great Lakes hits the road Tuesday morning to begin a six-game series against the top team in the East, the Lake County Captains. In their recent road series, Lake County took four games of six at Day Air Ballpark from the Dayton Dragons, and have won eight of their last 11 games.

The Great Lakes Loons have been the Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers since the team’s inception in 2007. Dow Diamond serves as the team’s home and also houses the Michigan Baseball Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, and ESPN 100.9-FM. For tickets or information about the Loons, call 989-837-BALL or visit Loons.com.