(Clinton, IA) - The Lake County Captains (11-8, 51-37) lost the first game in their six-game, Western Division road trip on Wednesday night. Lake County fell to the Clinton LumberKings (13-6, 46-42), 8-6, at NelsonCorp Field.
(Clinton, IA) - The Lake County Captains (11-8, 51-37) lost the first game in their six-game, Western Division road trip on Wednesday night. Lake County fell to the Clinton LumberKings (13-6, 46-42), 8-6, at NelsonCorp Field.
After the Captains grabbed an early lead, scoring on a first-inning RBI single by Jose Fermin , Clinton stormed back with five runs in the bottom half of the opening frame. Christopher Torres led off with a single, stole second and scored the tying run on an RBI single by Peyton Burdick. Two batters later, Bubba Hollins walked, Will Banfield followed with a single and Evan Edwards hit a three-run, opposite field home run to left. J.D. Osborne made it back-to-back homers, pulling a solo shot down the left field line to give Clinton a 5-1 lead.
LumberKings starter Tanner Andrews followed the five-run frame with a rare baseball feat. The right-hander pitched an immaculate inning in the top of the second, striking out all three Captains hitters on nine pitches. He fanned Jonathan Engelmann , Hosea Nelson and Josh Rolette , each on three pitches.
Captains starter Zach Draper followed Andrews' dominant inning by striking out the side in the bottom half of the second and Lake County's offense rebounded with four runs in the top of the third to tie the score. With two men on and one out, Fermin pulled an RBI single through the left side that scored Daniel Schneemann . Ruben Cardenas came up next and smoked a triple into the right-centerfield gap that scored both Bo Naylor and Fermin to pull Lake County within one run. Jesse Berardi 's RBI ground out to shortstop brought Cardenas home to tie the score at 5-5.
Clinton regained the lead in the fourth. A throwing error put Thomas Jones on first to begin the inning and Samuel Castro sacrifice bunted him to second. Torres then hit an RBI single to score Jones with the go-ahead run. Later in the inning, Connor Scott hit a triple that brought home Torres and gave Clinton a 7-5 lead.
The Captains caught a break in the fifth inning to pull back within one run. Naylor worked a one-out walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Fermin. Cardenas then roped a line drive to deep right field. Jones went back on the ball and dropped it on the edge of the warning track, allowing Naylor to score and trim the LumberKings' lead to 7-6.
After Captains reliever Luis Araujo pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, the LumberKings added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth against Manuel Alvarez . Torres hit a two-out double to right-center and came home on a dunk single to right by Burdick to give Clinton an 8-6 lead.
Lake County threatened in the ninth against LumberKings' closer Zach Wolf, but came up short. Rolette smoked a leadoff double to dead centerfield and Naylor singled with two outs, but Wolf struck out Fermin to end the game and notch his seventh save.
Andrews (4-3) picked up the win, allowing six runs, four earned, over six innings. He struck out six, walked two and allowed six hits.
Draper (5-1) took the loss. The lefty allowed seven runs, five earned, on nine hits across 3.2 innings. He struck out four and walked three.
Lake County suffered two injuries in the ballgame on collisions at first base. Quentin Holmes reached on a throwing error at first and collided with second baseman Samuel Castro as the runner tried to advance to second on the wild throw. He stayed in the game until the fourth before being replaced by Cody Farhat . Engelmann was injured in the fourth while playing first base. Jones ran into the Captains' first baseman as Engelmann was trying to catch a throw from Draper on a grounder back to the mound. Engelmann exited the game immediately after the collision and was replaced by Miguel Jerez .
The Captains take on Clinton again on Thursday night. First pitch at NelsonCorp Field is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
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). Mini ticket plans for the 2019 season are still available for great prices complete with several exclusive benefits. Information can be found at the Captains website www.captainsbaseball.com.
