Captains end regular season with 6-3 win over Loons

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Lake County Sentinel

Captains end regular season with 6-3 win over Loons

BY TIM SHIRER

CAPTAINS BEAT WRITER

(EASTLAKE, OH) - The Lake County Captains and Great Lakes Loons wrapped up the regular season on Monday afternoon. The two teams will begin their first-round playoff series on Wednesday when they play game one at Classic Park at 7:00 p.m. Monday’s game was a pitcher’s duel until late in the game when the Captains had a big inning and won the game 6-3 sending the 4,034 home happy.

The Captains got on the board first in the first inning with a single run. The run scored when with one out in the inning Hosea Nelson singled. Bryan Lavastida then singled and Nelson moved to second. Loons starting pitcher Stephen Kolek then uncorked a wild pitch and both runners moved up a base. Bo Naylor then hit a sacrifice fly to left field and Nelson trotted home with the first run of the game giving the Captains a 1-0 lead.

The Loons came right back in the second inning to tie the game. Captains starter Shaggy Turner retired the first batter of the inning on strikes and then gave up a single to Justin Yurchak. After Turner got Luke Heyer to fly out Leonal Valera doubled to right field and Yurchak scored tying the game 1-1.

The Loons took the lead in the fourth inning when Romer Cuadrado hit a solo homer to right center field. The home run for Cuadrado was his seventh of the season and gave the Loons a 2-1 lead.

The Captains continued the one run an inning theme in the sixth when they tied the game off Loons reliever Kevin Malisheski. The inning began with Bo Naylor doubling to right field. George Valera then drew a base on balls followed by a single by Raynel Delgado to load the bases. Jesse Berardi then hit a sac-fly to right field and Naylor trotted home with the tying.

The Captains took the lead in the bottom of the seventh when Loons reliever Joel Inoa entered the game in relief of Malisheski. Inoa got Miguel Jerez to ground out to begin the inning after that is was all downhill for the righthander. He followed by giving up a single to Quentin Holmes, Holmes then moved to second base on a passed ball by Loons catcher Jair Camargo. He then issued back to back base on balls to Nelson and Lavastida to load the bases. Clark Scolamiero then pinch hit for Naylor and struck out. The big blow of the inning came when Valera tripled down the right field line clearing the bases and giving the Captains a 5-2 lead.

The Captains added another run in the eighth inning and the Loons added another run in the ninth inning.

Zach Draper picked up the win in relief for the Captains. Draper relieved Turner to start the fifth inning and was brilliant. He went four scoreless innings, did not yield a hit and struck out four Loons batters. With the win Draper improves to 9-4 with a 3.12 ERA. Inoa took the loss for the Loons. Inoa went one inning allowing four runs, three were earned on two hits, he issued two base on balls and struck out one Captains batter. With the loss Inoa falls to 2-3 with a 5.21 ERA.

The Captains finished the regular season with a 74-64 record (40-29 1st half) (34-35 2nd half) clinching the first half wild card spot which propelled them to the playoff series that begins Wednesday.

The Captains finished 8th in the Midwest League in attendance with a final total of 200,356, which is an average of 3,082 per home date. That is an increase of 20 fans per game over the 2018 season.

When the first-round playoff series begins on Wednesday Righthander Ryan Pepiot will be on the mound for the Loons. Pepiot is 0-0 with a 2.45 ERA. The Captains will counter with their own righthander Shane McCarthy. McCarthy is 4-3 with a 4.14 ERA.