Captains crush Dragons 11-2

Eastlake, Ohio (WDTN) - Todd Hankins hit a home run and triple to lead the Lake County Captains to an 11-2 victory over the Dayton Dragons on Saturday night.  The two clubs have split the first two games of the series heading into Sunday afternoon’s first half finale.

Hankins belted a solo home run to left field to get the scoring started in the second inning.  Lake County then erupted for five runs in the second to take a commanding 6-0 lead.  The Captains took advantage of two errors by Dragons third baseman that led to four unearned runs among the five in the inning. Hankins’ RBI triple followed a run-scoring double by Jerrud Sabourin.

The Dragons scored their first run in the fourth on a tremendous home run by Juan Silva to right field.  The ball cleared a double-decker sign well beyond the right field fence.  It was Silva’s second home run in two nights after he had gone without a homer for the Dragons first 67 games of the season.

Lake County’s Luigi Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the sixth before the Captains added another unearned run in the seventh following Arias’ third error of the night.  Lake County scored two more in the eighth to take an 11-1 lead.  The Dragons scored in the ninth when Silva walked and eventually crossed the plate on a balk to close out the scoring.

Dragons starting pitcher Tanner Robles (4-4) tossed the first five innings, allowing five hits and six runs (two earned) with one walk and four strikeouts to suffer the loss.  Lucas O’Rear followed Robles and worked one inning, allowing three hits and two runs.  Dan Jensen came on to start the seventh and tossed two innings, allowing five hits and three runs (two earned).

The Dragons finished the game with nine hits.  Joe Terry was 3 for 4.  Juan Perez had two hits and extended his hitting streak to six straight games.  Silva had the home run and a walk, going 1 for 3.  The game marked just the second time in the last 13 contests that the Dragons have failed to score at least four runs.

The Dragons (29-40) close out the first half on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Lake County (WONE 980 AM).  Stalin Gerson (3-5, 4.65) will start for Dayton against Lake County’s Shawn Morimando (2-1, 3.89). The second half of the Midwest League’s split-season format opens on Friday, June 22 when the Dragons host Bowling Green at Fifth Third Field.