Lugnuts open second half with tight 3-2 loss

COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. – In the first game of the second half, Garrett Pennington’s three-run homer in the sixth inning lifted the West Michigan Whitecaps (1-0, 25-40) to a 3-2 win over the Lansing Lugnuts (0-1, 29-36) on Friday night at LMCU Ballpark.

The game was dominated by each club’s pitchers and was completed in two hours and two minutes. The Lugnuts left only three runners on base, all in the fourth inning, while the Whitecaps only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. Pennington made the most of that opportunity.

Thanks to RBI singles from Gunner Gouldsmith and Jared Sprague-Lott in the third inning and shutout ball from Samuel Dutton, the Nuts brought a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth.

Caleb Shpur led off with a single to right field, Woody Hadeen flied to center, and Bryce Rainer singled Shpur to third. That brought up Pennington, who cracked a 1-1 pitch from Dutton over the left field wall for his 13th home run.

Dutton recovered afterward, recording the final two outs of the inning to finish six innings of five-hit, three-run, one-walk work, striking out three.
Jorge Marcheco pitched a scoreless seventh and Jose Dicochea pitched around a two-out single in a scoreless eighth, but the Lugnuts were unable to rally against the West Michigan pen.

In the loss, second baseman Gouldsmith went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and a steal.

Right-hander Zane Taylor starts the penultimate game of the series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m., counter Whitecaps right-hander Rayner Castillo.

The Nuts wrap up the series on Sunday, returning to Lansing to host Great Lakes from June 23-28. For tickets and more information, call (517) 485-4500 or visit www.milb.com/lansing.

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