Big frame leads Dragons past South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind - Juan Perez connected on a home run and two doubles to lead the Dayton Dragons to a 9-2 victory over the South Bend Silver Hawks on Saturday night.  The Dragons took advantage of a seven-run second inning on the way to the win.  It was the second time in the last four games that the Dragons have enjoyed an inning of at least seven runs.  

In the Dayton second, Ryan Wright led off the frame with a double off the left field fence and went to third on Kyle Waldrop’s single to right.  After Yorman Rodriguez grounded out to shortstop to drive in Wright, Juan Silva blasted a long home run to right field to make it 3-0.  It was Silva’s third homer of the year.  With two outs, Junior Arias reached on an infield single to restart the rally.  Arias stole second and scored on Juan Perez’s bloop double to left field to make it 4-0.  Joe Terry lined a double to the right field corner to bring in Perez, and Sean Buckley followed with a home run to left-center field to make it 7-0.  The homer by Buckley was his sixth of the season and landed on a walkway well beyond the wall.

South Bend scored their only two runs in the fourth inning to make it 7-2.  Perez belted a two-run homer in the top of the ninth for Dayton to close out the scoring.  The Dragons improved to 2-7 in the second half while South Bend fell to 5-4.

Dragons starting pitcher Tanner Robles tossed the first six innings.  He allowed four hits and two runs while walking four and striking out one.  At one point, he retired nine straight batters as he evened his record at 5-5.  El’Hajj Muhammad replaced Robles to start the seventh and worked three perfect innings to record his first career save.  Muhammad struck out two as he retired all nine batters he faced.

The Dragons finished with 12 hits.  Perez led the way with three hits including the homer, his third of the year, and three runs batted in.  Buckley had two hits including his home run.  Arias and Wright also had two hits.  Wright extended his hitting streak to eight straight games.

The Dragons travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky to battle the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Sunday at 6:05 p.m. (EDT) in the first game of a three-game series.  Stalin Gerson (3-5, 4.30) will start for Dayton against Bowling Green’s Jake Floethe (6-1, 3.61).  The next home game is Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. against South Bend at Fifth Third Field.

Notes:  The Dragons established a season-high for hits in an inning when they collected seven in the second.  Five of those went for extra bases including three doubles and two home runs…The seven-run inning followed a nine-run inning for the Dragons on Wednesday, their biggest single inning in three years and biggest inning at home since 2007.