Dragons featured in New York Times

Dayton, OH (WDTN) - The New York Times features The Dragons after 814th consecutive sell-out at Fifth Third Filed.

Billy Hamilton raced home from second base on an error to break a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning and Drew Hayes pitched out of a jam in the ninth as the Dayton Dragons came from behind to defeat the Bowling Green Hot Rods 3-2 on Saturday night. A crowd of 8,464 saw the Dragons 814th consecutive sell-out, tying the all-time sports record previously established by the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. The Dragons can break the record on Saturday, July 9.

The win gave the Dragons their third straight series victory to start the second half in the Midwest League’s split-season format. Dayton took two-out-of-three in the series with the Hot Rods to improve to 6-3 in the half.

The Dragons winning rally began with a lead-off single to right field by Tucker Barnhart to start the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out, Hamilton grounded into a fielder’s choice as Barnhart was thrown out at second. Hamilton stole second base, picking up his 56th stolen base of the year. Ronald Torreyes hit a ground ball to shortstop that bounced off the glove of Bowling Green’s Derek Dietrich. Dietrich recovered quickly but Hamilton sprinted around third and scored with a head first slide just ahead of the tag to give Dayton a 3-2 lead.

In the ninth, Bowling Green put the tying run on third with only one out, but Hayes got Cody Rogers to ground out to first base for the second out as the runner held at third, and after a walk to Dietrich, Phil Wunderlich grounded out to second base to end the game.

Blaine Howell (1-1) pitched two innings of hitless relief to earn the win. Hayes recorded his 11th save in 11 opportunities on the year.

Bowling Green took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, getting an RBI single from Keith Castillo. The Dragons battled back to take the lead in the fourth when Yorman Rodriguez blasted a two-run home run after a walk to Dominic D’Anna to make it 2-1. Bowling Green tied the game in the on a two-out run-scoring single by Hector Guevara to bring the score to 2-2.

Dragons starting pitcher Daniel Corcino worked the first six innings, allowing eight hits and two runs with one walk and six strikeouts. He was not involved in the decision.

The Dragons collected only four hits. Rodriguez was 3 for 3 with a homer, double, and single.

The Dragons (6-3, 41-38) will start a six-game road trip at South Bend (5-4, 39-39) on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Stalin Gerson (1-0, 0.82) will start for Dayton.

To read the article in The New York times use the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/sports/baseball/for-one-minor-league-baseball-team-never-an-empty-seat.html