Dragons Topple TinCaps, 5-2

Dayton, OH - Like a medieval hero striving to break a centuries-long hex, the Dayton Dragons lived up to their mythical namesake Saturday night at Fifth Third Field, snapping the curse of the Fort Wayne TinCaps with a 5-2 win, defeating the Summit City squad for the first time in seven tries this year.

Fort Wayne (12-21, 55-47) scored the game's first run, getting a sacrifice fly from Luis Tejada in the top of the second inning to plate Luis Domoromo. Dayton (19-16, 47-57) starter Drew Cisco (4-5), who worked five innings, didn't surrender another run in his victorious outing. He scattered three hits, walked two and struck out two.

Matthew Shepherd made his fourth start of the season Saturday night. He worked a 1-2-3 first inning, but the Dragons hit 1-2-3 in the second inning, getting three consecutive hits to start the frame. That loaded the bases setting up Seth Mejias-Brean to score on a wild pitch, Jeff Gelalich to score on an RBI single from Zach Vincej, and Tanner Rahier to touch home on an RBI groundout from Brandon Dailey. Shepherd (4-3) allowed five hits, walked three and fanned just as many.

The TinCaps pulled to within one in the sixth inning with a Tyler Stubblefield triple and a Maxx Tissenbaum RBI single, but it was the last run the team would score.

Reliever Matt Chabot yielded two runs in the seventh. Beau Amaral led off with an infield single, paired with a throwing error by Fort Wayne third baseman Gabriel Quintana, allowing Amaral to move to second. Sammy Diaz followed by laying down a sacrifice bunt in an attempt to move Amaral move to third. The ball was fielded by Chabot, who threw too high to first base, allowing Amaral to score and extend the lead to 4-2. Diaz, who ended up at second on Chabot's throwing error, eventually scored later in the inning on a wild pitch.

Dragons reliever Michael Lorenzen, a former two-way player at Cal State-Fullerton, notched his first professional save with a perfect ninth inning.

This three-game series continues Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM at Fifth Third Field. The scheduled starters are Bryan Rodriguez for Fort Wayne and Sal Romano for Dayton. The game can be heard on The Fan 1380 and TheFanFortWayne.com.