Whitecaps Walk to 7-5 Win in Lansing
LANSING, MI – The West Michigan Whitecaps put themselves back over the .500 mark with a 7-5 win over the Lansing Lugnuts on Wednesday night at Jackson Field, giving them a three-game winning streak for the first time this season. The Whitecaps were as patient as they were aggressive, drawing
LANSING, MI – The West Michigan Whitecaps put themselves back over the .500 mark with a 7-5 win over the Lansing Lugnuts on Wednesday night at Jackson Field, giving them a three-game winning streak for the first time this season.
The Whitecaps were as patient as they were aggressive, drawing more walks (9) than they had base hits (8), paced by outfielder Andrew Sojka reaching base four times with a 2-for-3 performance with two runs scored, an RBI, and a pair of free passes in the victory.
West Michigan jumped out to a 1-0 lead in a strikingly similar fashion to their win one night before, as Ricardo Hurtado laced a first-inning run-scoring double for the second straight contest, but Lansing answered back when Dylan Fien launched his second home run of the season, a solo blast to even the score at one after the first inning. In the third, Lansing tallied two more runs in a frame featuring a run-scoring double by Fien, but the ‘Caps responded with two more to even the contest with an RBI-single by Clayton Campbell. In the sixth, infielder Cristian Santana launched his first home run as a Whitecap to give West Michigan a 4-3 lead before tacking on two more in the seventh to expand the lead to 6-3. Fien helped propel the Lugnuts back into the contest with a run-scoring single as part of a two-run bottom of the frame to bring the score to 6-5 in favor of West Michigan. In the eighth, outfielder Andrew Sojka launched a near home run off the vertical yellow line of the right field wall, settling for an RBI-double and giving West Michigan a 7-5 lead. ‘Caps relievers retired six of the final seven batters they faced to lock down the victory and give the ‘Caps a three-game winning streak.
West Michigan climbs over the break-even mark to 6-5 on the early season, while Lansing drops to an even 5-5. Whitecaps reliever Carlos Lequerica (2-0) tossed two perfect innings out of the bullpen, striking out three to earn his second win of the year. In his two seasons with West Michigan, the Miami native has a combined 10-0 record and a 2.20 ERA in 47 games. Lugnuts righty Ryan Brown (1-1) takes his first loss after giving up the go-ahead home run by Santana in relief. Inohan Paniagua tossed a scoreless ninth in collecting his first save since his days as a St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer in 2021. Jackson Strong reached base three times with a run scored, an RBI, and a pair of walks in the victory.
UP NEXT
The ‘Caps play the third game of this six-game series against the Lansing Lugnuts on Thursday at 6:05pm. Detroit Tigers Top-20 Prospect Lucas Elissalt gets the start for West Michigan against the Lugnuts Samuel Dutton. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty begins on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 5:50 pm on 106.1 FM ‘The Ticket’, and 1340 WJRW-AM in Grand Rapids, or listen to all the action on whitecapsbaseball.com.