Tincaps top Dragons 5-3 to win series

Dayton, Ohio—Blake Tekotte drilled a home run and Brad Brach picked up his league-leading 20th save as the Fort Wayne TinCaps defeated the Dayton Dragons 5-3 on Friday night at Fifth Third Field. The TinCaps won three of four games in the series as Brach earned saves on three consecutive nights.

For the fourth time in the four-game series, Fort Wayne jumped out to a 3-0 lead. With one out in the third inning, Blake Tekotte drilled a home run to give the TinCaps a 1-0 lead. Drew Cumberland followed with a walk and Daniel Robertson singled him around to third. Dragons starting pitcher Matt Fairel uncorked a wild pitch to bring in Cumberland, and Allan Dykstra singled to left to drive in Robertson and make it 3-0.

The Dragons scored one run in the third, getting a two-out, bases loaded walk to Kyle Day to bring in the run.

Fort Wayne scored once in the sixth before the Dragons pulled to within one in the seventh. Dayton’s Kevin Coddington walked to start the rally and with one out, Jordan Wideman doubled to the left field fence, moving Coddington to third. Kevyn Feiner hit a ground ball to the right side and legged out an infield single as Coddington scored and on the same play, Wideman also scored when Fort Wayne pitcher Colin Lynch dropped a throw to first as he attempted to beat Feiner to the bag as the Dragons pulled to within one at 4-3. But Dayton could get no closer. Andrew Means struck out and Feiner was thrown out attempting to steal second to end the inning.

Fort Wayne scored the game’s final run in the top of the eighth to extend their lead to 5-3. The Dragons had two base runners in the bottom of the eighth but could not score and Brach pitched a perfect ninth for the save.

Fairel (5-4) took the loss. He allowed three runs on six hits in five innings with three walks and five strikeouts. Three of Fairel’s four losses this season have come to Fort Wayne.

The TinCaps (7-1, 52-26) are 14-1 against Dayton this season and a combined 29-2 against the Dragons and South Bend.

The Dragons (3-5, 31-46) travel to West Michigan to take on the Whitecaps on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Curtis Partch (4-6, 5.67) will start for the Dragons against Casey Crosby (6-2, 3.39).