First round pick tosses four scoreless innings
MIDLAND -- The Great Lakes Loons were on the losing side of a pitchers’ duel Friday night, losing to the Lake County Captains by the score of 2-1.
The bright spot in the loss was Loons right-handed pitcher Zach Lee, who made his professional baseball debut a good one by pitching four scoreless innings.
“I felt good and thought I threw the ball pretty well tonight,” Lee said after the game. “I left some pitches up in the zone and walked too many people, but for my first overall outing, [it wasn’t] too bad.”
Lee, the Dodgers first-round selection from the 2010 draft, collected five strikeouts and issued three walks using 69 pitches, 39 of which went for strikes.
“My fastball was pretty good for the most part,” Lee said, evaluating his arsenal. “I lost a little bit of control as it got later in the game, to be expected this early [in the season]. The curveball was good and I got it over…I didn’t throw too many change-ups tonight, but the one I did throw wasn’t bad but just missed a little on the arm side…other than that I thought I had pretty good stuff.”
Lee pitched out of a two-on, two-out situation in the second inning by forcing Captains outfielder Argenis Martinez into a groundout to first base. Loons reliever Pete Budkevics took over for Lee at the start of the fifth with both teams still scoreless.
The Captains broke the offensive silence in the sixth inning as Tyler Cannon slapped a single up the middle to score Giovanny Urshela, who had advanced to third on an Alex Lavisky sacrifice bunt. The Captains were gifted another run in the ninth, when Loons catcher Steve Domecus took a pitchout and tossed it high of third base trying to pickoff Lake County’s Jason Smit, who scored on the error to give Lake County the two-run lead.
Great Lakes waited until the ninth inning to put a run on the board, initiated by Christian Lara’s leadoff double down the left-field line. Loons first baseman Blake Dean followed up with a double of his own to score Lara. The Loons put Bryant Hernandez in as a pinch runner to represent the game-tying run, but he never got the chance as Captains closer Clayton Ehlert retired the final three Loons.
The Loons play game three of their season-opening series vs. the Captains Saturday at 6:05 p.m. Starting for Great Lakes will be RHP Tim Sexton (0-0, 0.00) while RHP Kyle Blair (0-0, 0.00) will throw for the Captains.
