The Lake County Captains are back on the road starting tonight for the first of a kickoff of a road trip that will take them to Cedar Rapids and then Quad City.
The Captains are 9-14 on the young season, as they wrapped up the month of April with a 5-1 decision to West Michigan on Sunday before a day off on Monday.
Here’s a part of the recap from Sunday’s setback to the Whitecaps.
Gregory Soto, Locke St. John and Eduardo Jimenez kept the Lake County Captains’ (9-14) bats at bay on Sunday afternoon in the series finale at Classic Park. The West Michigan Whitecaps’ (15-9) hurlers combined to surrender just one unearned run and West Michigan took home a 5-1 win, knocking off the Captains for the third day in a row.
Soto (2-0) had not allowed a run all season coming into Sunday’s contest. That streak ended in the fourth inning when a passed ball allowed Conner Capel to score for Lake County, but that proved to be the only run the Captains could muster. Soto earned his second win, tossing five innings and surrendering four hits, while striking out five. He held the Captains to one run despite walking five. Lake County’s run was unearned, thanks to an error earlier in the frame, which helped keep Soto’s ERA at a perfect 0.00.
St. John, the left-hander, pitched 2.2 innings of shutout baseball before handing the ball off the closer Eduardo Jimenez for the final four outs. Jimenez set down all four men in order to earn his first save of the season.
West Michigan scored most of its runs in the first inning. The Whitecaps attacked Captains starter Shane Bieber early in the count and tallied four runs in the first on four hits and a pair of Lake County errors. Four of West Michigan’s five runs in the ballgame were unearned thanks to a trio of Captains defensive miscues.
An error by first baseman Emmanuel Tapia opened the game and allowed Danny Woodrow to reach. Woodrow was erased on a fielder’s choice, but Cam Gibson replaced him on first base and Jake Robson ripped a double to the left-centerfield gap to score Gibson all the way from first with the game’s first run. Blaise Salter came up next and shot a hard grounder to third that Jorma Rodriguez stopped on a sensational dive to his backhand side. Rodriguez, however, could not complete the play. The third baseman threw wildly to first base, allowing Robson to score and Salter to advance to second on the error.
The torturous first inning continued for Lake County, as Josh Lester singled and Danny Pinero knocked in Salter from third with a sacrifice fly. Bieber nearly got out of the inning after that, but Pereira ripped a 2-2 pitch down the left field line for a double to plate Lester and give West Michigan a 4-0 lead. Bieber finally escaped the frame when he got Drew Longley to pop out to left field, but the damage was done and the Whitecaps rode that rally to victory.
Now five games under .500 Lake County will turn to starter Juan Hillman, who is 1-3 on the season with a 10.59 ERA. He allowed five runs and four walks in just 3.1 in his last outing, a game that saw the Captains eventually fall to Great Lakes 7-0 back on April 26th.
Tonight’s first pitch is set for 7:35pm, and before the game tune into ‘Captains Live’ at 6:35pm and then the action from there – Click the Captains Logo below to be taken to AllSportsCleveland.net where you can hear every pitch!
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