Captains Comeback and Beat Cubs 4-3
SOUTH BEND, IN - It will take another night for the Cubs to clinch a playoff spot as they lost 4-3 against the Lake County Captains Friday night at Four Winds Field. After a professional best 7 innings from Casey Bloomquist an error in the 8th would result in 3 unearned runs for the Captains and keep the their playoff hopes alive.
For the Cubs the scoring would start early in the first as Carlos Sepulveda led the game off with a base hit and moved to third on a PJ Higgins single to right. Ian Rice would hit one to right field on a sacrifice fly to score Sepulveda. Higgins would then move to 3rd on a bloop single from Eloy Jimenez that went over the head of first baseman Anthony Miller and then get hit in on the sacrifice fly from Donnie Dewees. The inning would then end on a Eddy Martinez strikeout.
Carlos Sepulveda would start the 3rd inning with a bang hitting a triple to the corner of right field but the Cubs would not be able to hit him in as PJ Higgins would pop up for the first out and then Ian Rice would ground out to second baseman Tyler Krieger. An intentional walk to Jimenez would bring up Donnie Dewees but he would ground out to second to end the inning.
A solo home run by Jose Medina in the 5th brought the game back to within 1 run.
Thomas Pannone would exit the game after the 5th for Courtland Cox who would pitch until the 7th inning.
After 7 great innings Casey Bloomquist would exit for Craig Brooks to start the 8th
After 2 quick outs in the top of the 8th an error by shortstop Bryant Flete would put Will Castro on first who would then advance to 2nd base on a wild pitch by Craig Brooks and then a walk to Tyler Krieger would bring up Francisco Mejia who would double to right center to score Castro and Krieger. Another double by Marabell would score Mejia and give the Captains a 4-2 lead. Anthony Miller would then strike out to end the inning.
Another pitching change would happen for the Capitals to start the bottom of the 8th as Billy Strode would come in looking for the two inning save.
Ian Rice would bring the game back to within 1 run with a homerun to start the bottom of the 8th to left center. Eloy Jiminez, Donnie Dewees and Eddy Martinez would all ground out to end the 8th.
Tyler Peitzmeier would come in to the game for the top of the 9th for Craig Brooks and give up a leadoff single but then get a ground ball double play to Sepulveda and then a ground out to Flete to give the Cubs a chance trailing by 1 heading in to the bottom of the 9th.
Going in to the bottom of the 9th Tyler Alamo would strikeout to start the inning and then going down on strikes would be Josh Silver and Jesse Hodges who would pinch hit for Bryant Flete but also go down on strikes to end the game.
The Cubs now drop to 2nd place behind the West Michigan Whitecaps but a playoff spot and division title is still possible. One win against the Lake County Captains still seals a playoff berth and the Cubs have 2 chances to do so with a game Saturday night at 7:05PM(ET) at Four Winds Field.