Captains drop rain-soaked marathon to Loons

(Eastlake, OH) - The Lake County Captains (5-3, 32-45) and Great Lakes Loons (5-3, 41-36) waited out the rain and ended up playing past midnight on Thursday night in the final game of a four-game series at Classic Park. After a two hour and 17 minute rain delay, Luis Jimenez fired the first pitch of the ballgame at 9:17 PM. The final out was recorded three hours and 12 minutes later with the Loons beating the Captains, 10-4.
Great Lakes and Lake County traded blows early. The Loons took a 1-0 lead two batters into the game. Gavin Lux led off with a double and Brendon Davis followed with an RBI double. The Captains responded in the bottom of the first. Mitch Longo hit a leadoff triple and scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Gavin Collins to knot the score at 1-1.

Lux tormented the Captains all game and in the third inning he put Great Lakes on top. The Loons' leadoff batter came to the plate to start the third and launched a solo homer to give the Loons a 2-1 lead. Lux's long ball was his second of the series and third of the season.
Great Lakes added an insurance run the next inning on an RBI double by Eric Meza, but Lake County responded with two big swings in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs and nobody on Emmanuel Tapia drove a solo home run to the opposite field. Tapia's homer traveled an estimated 411 feet to left field for his league-leading 17^th home run of the season. Conner Capel came up next and drilled a laser home run to right for his 11^th homer of the season. The back-to-back blasts tied the score at 3-3.
The Loons jumped back in front in the fifth. Justin Garza came in to relieve Jimenez and promptly walked Lux and Davis to begin the frame. After a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, Cody Thomas hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly to score Lux. Carlos Rincon followed with a sacrifice fly that plated Davis to give the Loons a 5-3 lead.
Logan Ice pulled the Captains back within one run in the sixth. Collins hit a one-out single and Tapia walked, prompting the Loons to call on right-hander Ryan Moseley to relieve starter Jordan Sheffield. Moseley got a fly out for out number two, but Ice ripped a ball to the gap in right-centerfield. Collins scored to cut the Loons' lead to 5-4, but Thomas, the centerfielder, threw Ice out at second, as the Captains' catcher tried to stretch his single into a double. Thomas' timely heave ended the inning.
The Loons grabbed three big insurance runs down the stretch. Rincon drove in his second run of the night with an RBI double against Garza. In the ninth, a two-out error by Miguel Eladio loaded the bases for Meza who drilled a three-run double against Ryan Colegate off the centerfield wall. All three runs were unearned, but the Captains fell behind, 10-4.
After the Captains won the first two games of the series, the Loons won the second pair to split the four-game series. That snapped a stretch of four consecutive series wins by the Captains.
Sheffield (2-5) earned the win for Great Lakes. He allowed four runs over 5.1 innings on five Captains hits. Sheffield struck out four and walked a pair.
Garza (2-3) took the loss for Lake County. The right-hander worked four innings and surrendered four runs on three Loons hits. Garza walked three, hit one batter and struck out a pair.
The Captains stay at home on Friday to begin a four-game series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods. First pitch at Classic Park is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
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). 12- and 20-game mini ticket plans for the 2017 season are on sale now at great prices complete with several exclusive benefits. Information can be found at the Captains website www.captainsbaseball.com.