Vladimir Sr. makes an appearance as Lugnuts drop first half finale

LANSING, Mich. - The Lansing Lugnuts (37-29) finished off the first half with a 10-1 loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps (45-22) in a Sunday matinee at Cooley Law School Stadium.

The game began with a ceremonial first pitch from Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. to Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., with the former Expos and Angels standout making a surprise appearance to root on his son on Father's Day.

Lansing starter Osman Gutierrez (Loss, 1-5) held the Whitecaps off the board for the first two innings before allowing two runs in the third and three more in the fourth.

Former Michigan State Spartan Cam Gibson knocked a two-run homer in the sixth off All-Star reliever Geno Encina .

Connor Eller pitched a perfect seventh, striking out one, and Tayler Saucedo handled a 1-2-3 on his 24th birthday.

Anthony Pereira closed out the scoring with a three-run homer off Dan Lietz in the ninth.

The Lugnuts collected their only three hits of the game with two outs in the fifth, with singles from Ryan Hissey , Yeltsin Gudino and Nick Sinay loading the bases against Whitecaps starter Spenser Watkins. Rodrigo Orozco followed with a walk, pushing in the Lugs' only run.

Bo Bichette was 0-for-2 before exiting the game, finishing the first half with a .396 batting average. Guerrero went 0-for-4 with a strikeout, dropping his average to .321.

Bichette, Guerrero and Encina will represent the Lugnuts in the Midwest League All-Star Classic on Tuesday night at Dow Diamond in Midland. The second half resumes on Thursday with a road series at West Michigan.

The next Lugnuts' home game is a Dog Days of Summer at 7:05 p.m. Monday, June 26th. Second-half tickets may be purchased at the Cooley Law School Stadium box office, by calling (517) 485-4500 or via lansinglugnuts.com.
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