Cubs cruise their way to 8-4 series finale win over Dayton

South Bend, IN: With an 8-4 win over the Dayton Dragons in game four of their weekend series, the South Bend Cubs not only won the series with three victories, but also take their fourth consecutive series going back to two weeks ago against the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Everything was clicking for the home team this afternoon from Four Winds Field. Starting on the mound, the Cubs received another quality start from the tall and hard throwing lefty Brailyn Marquez. In his second win of the year, the number one Chicago Cubs pitching prospect tossed five innings of two run baseball along with six strikeouts. He has struck out at least six in three of his last four starts. 
Out of the bullpen, Jeffrey Passantino and Sean Barry shut the door with four combined innings in relief. Passantino struck out four batters in his second appearance since coming off the injured list. Barry kept his ERA at 0.00 by giving up an unearned run and striking out two.
It was a hot start for South Bend at the plate off of Dayton starter Ricky Salinas. The right-hander Salinas needed 35 pitches just to get out of the first inning. After back-to-back walks of D.J. Artis and Delvin Zinn to start his outing, Andy Weber reached on an error to load the bases. 
The next batter was Jonathan Sierra, who punched a line drive single into center field and plated Artis. Later in the inning with the bases still juiced, Tyler Durna smashed a bases clearing double all the way to the right-center field wall. Durna had three RBI on the night to lead South Bend. 
With Dayton scoring their four runs, the game winning hit and run came on one swing of the bat courtesy of third baseman Christopher Morel. Morel crushed a solo home run towards the left field corner off of the Cubs Den Team Store. It was Morel's first blast at Four Winds Field this season, and his second overall. 
With the win, the Cubs improve to 24-17 on the season heading into a four-game road trip to Fort Wayne. First pitch from Parkview Field is set for 7:05 tomorrow night. Right-hander Derek Casey will take the baseball for South Bend.