Pena doubles twice in game two victory
MIDLAND -- The Great Lakes Loons won one and lost one in Dow Diamond’s first doubleheader of the season. The home team dropped game one to the South Bend Silver Hawks 4-3, before winning game two 4-1 with four extra-base hits.The Loons scored first in game one by picking up three runs in the second inning on four consecutive singles. Jon Garcia, who reached base on balls, scored on Jesse Bosnik’s single to left; Roman Pena crossed home plate on a Christian Lara single to right; and Bosnik scored on a line drive single from Bryant Hernandez. South Bend began their rally in the fourth inning when first baseman Yazy Arbelo hit a solo home run to get the Hawks on the board. In the following inning with two outs and runners in scoring position, Zach Walters hit a three-run homer that just cleared the wall in left, which proved to be the game winner for South Bend.
Loons starting pitcher Tim Sexton finished with five strikeouts, but surrendered four runs on six hits over five innings. The S-Hawks used Tyler Green to pick up the win, while former Central Michigan University player Dan Taylor picked up his first save by throwing two hitless innings for South Bend.
Game two of the doubleheader featured a reversal of fortunes. This time it was the Silver Hawks scoring first on a Matt Helm RBI-single, but the Loons rallied with back-to-back hits in the second to tie the game. Lara hit a single to left in the third to score Hernandez for the 2-1 lead. Hernandez had reached third in the prior at-bat by sending a pitch to the right-centerfield wall for a triple.
The Loons found a pair of insurance runs over the next two innings. First it was centerfielder Pena who doubled in Garcia, who also doubled. Then in the fifth, a textbook bunt from Jesse Bosnik allowed him to get on base, a throwing error from the pitcher moved him to second, a Hernandez sac-bunt moved him to third and a sac-fly brought him home.
Derek Cone made his first start for the Loons and held the Hawks to just one run in three innings, but it was reliever Logan Bawcom who picked up the win for three innings of scoreless baseball. Loons closer Shawn Tolleson struck out the side in the seventh for his league-leading sixth save of the year. For the 16 outs Tolleson has been asked to take care of this season, 15 have been strikeouts.
“I’m just going out there and trying to do my best to throw strikes and keep the ball down in the zone,” Tolleson said. “I’m throwing a cutter slider thing, and I’m trying to get ahead with fastballs and put away guys with that. They’re just chasing it.”
The Loons will begin a three-game series against the Dayton Dragons Thursday night at 6:05 p.m. Great Lakes will send left-handed pitcher Ryan Christenson to the mound; Dayton’s starter to be announced. Gates open at 5:00.
