Captains capture third straight win

(Lansing, MI) – An excellent professional debut by starter Tanner Burns and a balanced offensive attack led the Lake County Captains (3-1) to their third straight win over the Lansing Lugnuts (1-3) on Friday night at Jackson Field. Burns held the Lugnuts scoreless over four innings and the Captains beat Lansing, 6-2.

The Captains got the scoring started in the top of the second inning when Austen Wade launched Lake County’s first home run of the season. Wade’s line drive home run over the right field wall gave the Captains a 1-0 lead.

The Captains added to their lead in the third inning. A leadoff double by

Victor Nova started the action and Will Brennan connected on his second double of the season with one out to drive home Nova. Brennan later raced home on a groundout to shortstop from Aaron Bracho to give the Captains a 3-0 lead.

Burns silenced the Lugnuts’ bats in his professional debut. After Michael Guldberg led off the first with an infield single, Burns retired the next eight consecutive hitters, including four straight strikeouts. Burns struck out six and scattered three singles over his six shutout frames.

A lead off single from Wade got another rally started for the Captains in the seventh. Wade advanced to second on a passed ball and then scored on an RBI single by Nova to make the score 4-0.

Lansing answered with their first run of the day in the seventh. Jake Suddleson doubled down the left field line and a single by Lester Madden, jr. put runners on the corners. Michael Guldberg grounded into a double play, but Suddleson scored for Lansing, to trim the Lake County lead to 4-1.

The Captains responded in the eighth with a pair of runs to make the score 6-1. Brennan hooked a single to right that snuck passed Suddleson for an error, which allowed Brennan to reach third base. He came home a batter later on a sacrifice fly by Bracho. After

Jonathan Engelmann reached on a walk, he advanced to second base on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball. Joe Naranjo drove Engelmann home with a single to left field.

Lansing rallied in the ninth off of Captains reliever

Kellen Rholl. Cobie Vance singled with one out and Madden walked with two outs. After a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, an error scored a run and extended the game. Guldberg hit a ground ball to deep shortstop. Brayan Rocchio fielded the ball, but double-clutched and threw late to first. Vance scored to cut the Captains’ lead to 6-2.

Kevin Kelly

(2) entered for the Captains after the error and promptly ended the ballgame. On just one pitch, Kelly got Drew Millas to fly out to Wade in right-centerfield for the final out of the game. The one-pitch outing netted Kelly his second save of the season.

Reid Birlingmair (0-1) took the loss for Lansing in his 2021 debut. Birlingmair went five innings and allowed three earned runs. He gave up six hits, walked one and struck out four.

Kevin Coulter

(1-0) received the win out of the bullpen for the Captains working three innings. Lansing scored one run off of Coulter who walked one batter with zero strikeouts.

On Saturday,

Matt Turner will make his 2021 debut on the mound for the Captains. Jeff Criswell gets the ball for Lansing. First pitch from Jackson Field is set for 7:05.

A**bout the Captains**

The Lake County Captains are the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. For more information, visit the Captains’ website at www.CaptainsBaseball.com, Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/CaptainsBaseball, Twitter @LCCaptains and Instagram @LCCaptains. Fans can also get the latest Captains news and offers by signing up for the Captains’ newsletter, The Anchor.