South Bend Hangs on for Eighth Win in a Row

South Bend, IN – Mark it eight, dude! The South Bend Cubs won 6-5 in another white-knuckler and in doing so extended their winning streak to eight games overall, ten in a row at home.

Jeremiah Estrada came on with the tying and go-ahead runs aboard in the eighth inning, worked out of it unscathed and locked it down in the ninth for a five-out save, his team-leading fourth save of the season.

On a toasty night with temperatures in the high 80s both pitchers got off to fast starts. Jackson Wolf, the 6-foot-7 lefty, retired the first six batters he faced and Manuel Espinoza, in his first start of the season, retired nine of the first 10.

In the third inning the Cubs struck first and dropped a three-spot on the former West Virginia Mountaineer. Owen Caissie was hit by an 0-2 pitch and Jordan Nwogu followed with a double in his first at-bat of the series. The top of the order would come through with a two-RBI knock from Fabian Pertuz and an RBI double from Cole Roederer, his first hit since rejoining South Bend on Tuesday.

The TinCaps got a run back in the fourth on a groundout from Angel Solarte, scoring Robert Hassell III from third. In the fourth they cut it to one as Luis Verdugo let a ball go under his glove with two outs, allowing an unearned run to score from third with two outs.

With the game see-sawing back and forth it was South Bend that scored next with a two-spot in the sixth. Roederer launched the first pitch of the frame off the wall in right and legged out the Cubs third triple of the season. Bradley Beesley followed with a triple of his own to make it a 4-2 game. Matt Mervis singled him in as the Cubs, who entered the sixth with just three hits, managed back-to-back-to-back base knocks to restore the three-run lead at 5-2.

But the Cubs walked eight batters from the fourth inning on and Fort Wayne mounted a rally right back, scoring three runs in the seventh off Eduarniel Nuñez and Bailey Reid. Nuñez stranded the bases loaded in the sixth but bequeathed three baserunners with no outs to Reid in the seventh and they all scored.

Brand new ballgame, 5-5 the score.

Caissie drew a free pass to start the seventh and advanced to third on a Pablo Aliendo single. Pertuz drove home the game-winning run as he picked up his third RBI of the night on a fielder’s choice and the Cubs led 6-5.

Estrada struck out Jack Stronach swinging with the game-tying run at first in the ninth and South Bend got the win, again.

Game three of the six-game set is scheduled for Thursday night at 7:05 p.m.