Bats came alive in the fifth inning for Great Lakes.
MIDLAND -- TheGreat Lakes Loons used two home runs, a big fifth inning and several defensive gems to defeat the Midwest League’s Eastern Division leaders, the Dayton Dragons, Wednesday night by the score of 9-3 in front of a Dow Diamond sell-out crowd of 5,301 fans. The win, in addition with Fort Wayne’s loss to South Bend, pulls the Loons to within three games of the TinCaps, who currently hold the final playoff spot.
The Loons had five players in the line-up finish with multiple hits and account for 12 of the Loons 14 hits. Michael Pericht had two hits and got things going with his RBI-single in the second inning. On the throw in from right field, the baseball deflected off of Pericht at first and allowed another run to score on the throwing error to make it 2-0 Loons. “I was just rounding first, trying to see where they were going to throw the ball and [it went] behind me,” Pericht said of the unusual deflection. “I was trying to get back to the bag real quick and then it hit off my hip and rolled to the dugout.”
Pericht again increased the Loons lead in the fourth inning by cracking a solo home run to centerfield; his eighth of the season to make it 3-1 Loons. In the following inning, Great Lakes broke away from Dayton with a four-run inning in which all nine Loons stepped to the plate. The team had five hits in the fifth with Casio Grider and Akins receiving RBI to make it 7-1.
The team shined defensively as well, as Pericht completed two putouts at the plate within the first two innings, the latter a line-out double play from right fielder Jon Garcia. Garcia completed a second double play in the third inning, this time catching and throwing to first to double-off the runner returning to the bag. The defensive plays seemed to draw from the impressive effort of Loons starting pitcher Angel Sanchez, who battled rain in the middle of his seven-inning one-run start, to pick up his seventh win of the season.
Leon Landry had a diving catch in the fourth, racing back towards the warning track and a leaping line-out snagged by Blake Dean at first base in the fifth rounded out the air-tight defense showcased Wednesday night. Outfielders Nick Akins and Landry each finished with three hits; Landry a triple shy of the cycle, finding a two-run homer in the sixth. The Loons play game two of their three-game series against the Dayton Dragons Thursday night at Dow Diamond. Starting for the Loons will be LHP Greg Wilborn (3-2, 3.20) against the Dragons RHP Kyle Lotzkar (2-1, 4.62).
