McKenzie, Calica shine in 3-0 win

(Eastlake, OH) - Triston McKenzie delivered a lights-out performance and Andrew Calica carried the Lake County Captains' offense in his Midwest League debut on Friday night, as the Captains defeated the Lansing Lugnuts. McKenzie pitched six shutout innings and Calica went 4-for-4 to help Lake County to a 3-0 win at Classic Park.

McKenzie began mowing down Lansing hitters early. After allowing a leadoff single in the first, he struck out the next five consecutive batters. Through three innings, the right-hander had fanned six and allowed just one baserunner.

While McKenzie was dealing, the Captains had a tough assignment at the plate. Lugnuts lefty Ryan Borucki matched McKenzie strikeout-for-strikeout. After allowing a pair of hits in the first, he went on to strike out the side in the second and tack on two more in the third. Borucki, like McKenzie, had six punch-outs through three shutout innings.

McKenzie's strikeouts ran dry over the next pair of innings, but he kept dominating Lansing. Lane Thomas posed a threat when he hit a one-out double in the fourth, but McKenzie then got a grounder back to the mound and a fly out to center to end the inning. After that, he worked a perfect fifth to keep the game scoreless.

Borucki did his part to keep runs off the board. The southpaw struck out two more batters in the fourth inning and picked off Calica at first base to face the minimum. The next inning, an error allowed David Armendariz to land on second with nobody out, but Borucki pitched around it. He struck out the next man for his ninth punch-out and then retired the next two Captains. Borucki ended his night after five shutout innings with nine strikeouts, no walks and three hits allowed.

McKenzie delivered another scoreless inning in the sixth, but it came with some trouble. After the right-hander fanned Andrew Guillotte looking for the second out of the inning and his seventh strikeout, McKenzie lost the zone against Juan Kelly and walked him. He then struck out Thomas, but the ball skipped to the backstop for a wild pitch and Thomas reached first base. McKenzie then hit Connor Panas with a pitch to load the bases, but he recovered just in time. McKenzie struck out Ryan Hissey looking on a fastball at the letters to end the sixth and his night with his ninth strikeout.

The Captains' offense woke up in the sixth against the Lansing bullpen. Facing lefty reliever Tayler Saucedo, the Captains went to work. Willi Castro pushed a bunt to the right side and a rushed Saucedo sent his flip to first wide. Castro reached on a bunt base hit and advanced to second on the error. Jodd Carter followed with an infield hit and that brought Calica to the plate. Calica had already gone 2-for-2 with a pair of singles and the left-handed hitter slammed a double to the gap in left-center. Castro and Carter scored to give the Captains the lead. Two batters later, Li-Jen Chu shot a single through a drawn-in infield to score Calica and give the Captains a 3-0 advantage.

The bullpen took care of the rest for Lake County. Leandro Linares pitched a pair of shutout innings with six strikeouts and Erick Algarin pitched a perfect ninth for his first save of the year. In total, the Captains' pitching staff set a single-game high in 2016 with 16 strikeouts.

McKenzie (2-1) earned the win with six shutout innings of work. He allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out nine. McKenzie has now punched out 43 batters in 29.2 innings with the Captains and he has walked just four.

Saucedo (8-11) gave up all three Captains runs and took the loss. He lasted 1.2 innings and surrendered five hits, walked one and struck out one.

Calica drove the Captains' offense in his Lake County debut. A night after he had gone 3-for-3 with a homer and a triple for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Calica went 4-for-4 and had a hand in every Captains run with a double, a pair of RBI and a run scored.

Lake County snapped a five-game losing streak with the win and will take on Lansing again on Saturday night at Classic Park. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 PM.

Individual game tickets are on sale at the Classic Park box office, online at captainsbaseball.com and by phone at 440-954-WINS (9467). Season tickets, 12-, 20-, and 35-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.