Captains close out Dayton series with shutout win

(Dayton, OH) - The Lake County Captains (28-18) wrapped up a five-game series against the Dayton Dragons (15-32) with an 8-0 win on Thursday night at Fifth Third Field.

A trio of Captains hurlers combined to blank Dayton in the series finale. Starter Shane McCarthy pitched the first two innings before leaving with an apparent injury prior to the third. The right-hander allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out one. Lefty Kellen Rholl took the baton and hurled the next four innings, holding the Dragons to three hits with one walk and six strikeouts. Aaron Pinto finished the shutout with three innings, in which he allowed four hits with no walks or strikeouts.
Lake County's offense struck with the game's first run just two batters into the third inning. Bo Naylor led off with a single and Tyler Freeman slammed a triple off the centerfield wall to score Naylor and give the Captains a 1-0 lead. Quentin Holmes then hit a solo homer down the left field line in the fourth to push the advantage to 2-0.
The Captains loaded the bases in the sixth, but only managed one run. Dragons reliever Andrew McDonald walked Jesse Berardi on four pitches to begin the inning and Connor Smith followed with a single. Holmes came up next and bunted the ball right back to the mound. McDonald spun and looked at third, but had no play as Juan Martinez was not yet back at the base, so the right-hander threw to first base and nearly airmailed the heave. Second baseman Brian Rey, who had slid over to cover first, had to leap to save McDonald from an error. The play went down as a bunt single to load the bases with one out. Naylor later hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Berardi to give the Captains a 3-0 lead.
Two more runs in the seventh gave Lake County a 5-0 lead. McDonald again issued a leadoff walk, this time to Mitch Reeves , and Miguel Jerez followed with a single to put men on the corners. Catcher Jay Schuyler then tried to pick Reeves off of third with a snap throw, but sent the ball into left. Reeves scored on the error. Berardi then hit a slicing liner to left that tipped off of Zeek White's outstretched glove and rolled behind the left fielder for a double that scored Jerez.
The Captains tacked on three more runs in the ninth. Reeves hit a leadoff single and Berardi walked with one out. Smith then hit a grounder down the third base line that went under Martinez's glove and rolled into the Dayton bullpen. Reeves scored on the play to give the Captains a 6-0 lead. An RBI single by Holmes scored Berardi to make it 7-0 and Hosea Nelson 's RBI ground out to short closed the scoring, plating Smith to push the lead to 8-0.
Rholl (1-1) earned the win for his efforts and Pinto notched his second save of the year. Dayton starter Connor Curlis took the loss. Curlis (0-1) struck out seven over four innings, but allowed two runs on four hits with a pair of walks.
The Captains won four out of five games in Dayton to begin a 12-game, 11-day road trip. Lake County will resume the road trip on Friday night when they start a four-game series against the Lansing Lugnuts. First pitch at Cooley Law School Stadium is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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.