After delay, Captains surge to victory

(Davenport, IA) - A rain delay was the turning point for the Lake County Captains (16-18) on Saturday night in a 5-3 win over the Quad Cities River Bandits (19-15). Following a 45-minute rain delay, the Captains rallied from behind to beat Quad Cities in the rubber game of the series at Modern Woodmen Park. The victory ended the Captains' string of four straight series losses and four consecutive losses in series-deciding games.
Quad Cities held a 3-2 lead after seven innings when the rain came down and the tarp came out. After the delay, the River Bandits brought in right-hander Robert Corniel to pitch the eighth. Jorma Rodriguez started the Captains' rally with a hustle infield single. Rodriguez hit a soft grounder to first base, Jake Adams fielded the ball and flipped to Corniel covering first, but Rodriguez beat Corniel to the bag. Nolan Jones followed by slashing a line drive to the gap in left-centerfield. Jacob Meyers bobbled the ball in center, allowing Rodriguez to go from first to third and Jones to reach second on a single and an error.

Corniel struck out Ulysses Cantu for the first out, bringing up Jonathan Laureano with two men in scoring position and one out. The River Bandits pulled the infield in, trying to protect a one-run lead, but Laureano delivered. He grounded a single into centerfield, scoring both Rodriguez with the tying run and Jones with the go-ahead run to give Lake County a 4-3 lead. Later in the inning, Todd Isaacs singled home Laureano with a line drive to right, giving the Captains a 5-3 advantage.
The Captains sweated through the ninth inning, but prevailed. Tommy DeJuneas was on the hill in search of his first career save. Jake Adams singled with one out, but DeJuneas struck out Michael Papierski for out number two. The right-hander came within one strike of closing the game, but walked Cody Bohanek on a 3-2 pitch to put the tying run on base and bring the winning run to the plate in the person of Colton Shaver. Shaver had already homered earlier in the game and the right-handed hitting slugger worked the count full. A ball to the gap might have tied the game and a home run would have sunk the Captains, but DeJuneas got Shaver to fly out harmlessly to left for the final out of the game. DeJuneas picked up his first save in the process, pitching two shutout innings with two strikeouts, two hits and one walk.
Before Lake County's comeback, Quad Cities built a 3-0 lead. In the second inning, back-to-back triples helped the River Bandits ignite a rally against Captains starter Kirk McCarty . Bryan De La Cruz led off with a triple to the gap in right-centerfield. Adams came up next and hit a deep drive to centerfield that tipped off of Isaacs' glove and bounced off the wall. De La Cruz scored and Adams cruised into third with a triple to give the River Bandits a 1-0 lead.
McCarty nearly kept the damage to one run. The lefty got Papierski to ground out to third and struck out Bohanek. Shaver, however, hit a two-out single to score Adams and push Quad Cities' lead to 2-0. Shaver later hit a solo homer to right field in the fifth to give the River Bandits a 3-0 advantage.
Lake County could not score against Quad Cities starter Patrick Sandoval, but began to come back against reliever Cesar Rosado. Ernie Clement began the rally with a single and Rodriguez followed with a sharp double to left field. With runners on second and third, Jones pulled the Captains within one with a single to center. Clement and Rodriguez scored to cut the River Bandits' lead to 3-2.
Kyle Nelson picked up the win in relief of McCarty. The lefty tossed two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh. Nelson (3-0) struck out one and did not issue a walk.
Corniel (0-1) took the loss for Quad Cities. The right-hander lasted 2/3 of an inning and allowed three runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out one.
The Captains took two out of three from the River Bandits, winning their first series since April 23-26 when they won three out of four against the West Michigan Whitecaps. Saturday was Lake County's first road series victory since April 17-19 when they won two out of three at the Lansing Lugnuts. Their win on April 19 was also the Captains' last rubber game victory prior to Saturday.
Lake County will have a day off on Sunday before starting a string of six games in four days against the South Bend Cubs back at Classic Park. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Monday. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
Information about Classic Park or the Captains can be found online at www.captainsbaseball.com and by phone at 440-954-<st1:stockticker w:st="on">WINS (9467). Affordable ticket packages and group party and picnic options are available now.