Loons win their second game of the season 5-4 against the Lake County Captains Wednesday.
After four hours and nine minutes of baseball Wednesday afternoon at Dow Diamond, the Great Lakes Loons pulled out the 5-4 victory over the Lake County Captains, as well as the 2-1 series win. Catcher Pratt Maynard scored the winning run via a Kevin Taylor single and heads-up base running.
MIDLAND -- After scoring their initial four runs in the first two innings, the Loons were held scoreless until the bottom of the 14th. Maynard, who was previously 0-for-5 on the day with one RBI, connected for an innocent one-out single through the gap at second. The Loons second baseman, Taylor, was the next to bat and zipped a grounder just fair down the first-base line. Maynard was coming in to rest at third, but a throwing error from right field allowed him to take home for the walk-off win.
"I came around third, hit the bag, and found the ball," Maynard said. "I saw it hit off his hand and go maybe eight feet in the air, and as soon as I saw that I just took off running." He figured, "by the time he catches it, finds his target and throws it, it'd probably take six seconds. And I'm only going 90 feet. It doesn't take me six seconds, so I went for it."
Maynard says he wasn't crunching all of these numbers during the play, but was able to simply gauge the time based on previous in-game experiences. The result is the Loons second win in a row, improving their 2012 record to 2-3.
The Loons benefited from a strong start by pitcher Jarret Martin, who retired the first nine Captains in order; however, the lefty was unable to close-out the fifth inning and allowed four runs, three earned, on five hits in his last inning's worth. The lefty did collect six strikeouts in the contest, bringing his total to 12 on the year to share the Midwest League lead. Loons reliever Matt Shelton received the win for a scoreless inning of work, while Jose Dominguez, Ryan O'Sullivan and Jason West combined to eat up 8.1 frames.
Offensively, the Loons scored on hits from Scott Schebler and Taylor in the first inning, while Jesse Bosnik, facing a full count in the second inning, hit his second consecutive home run in as many games. The homer had the same sharp right-field trajectory as Tuesday's and is estimated to have gone 347 feet.
The Loons will host a four-game series with the Fort Wayne TinCaps, beginning on Thursday night. RHP Brandon Martinez (0-1, 6.23) will start for the Loons opposite RHP Adys Portillo (0-0, 0.00) for the 'Caps. The game marks the first of Chemical Bank's $1 Family Feast Nights, where fans can eat hot dogs, 16 oz. Coke products and ice cream sandwiches for just $1 apiece.
The Great Lakes Loons are a sixth-year Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and are in the middle of their 5th Anniversary Celebration, which kicked off in August 2011 and will continue throughout the 2012 season. For more information about the Loons, visit Loons.com or call 989-837-BALL.
