Dragons take 3 of 4 from Lugnuts

Dayton, Ohio (WDTN) - Dayton pitchers Stalin Gerson and Carlos Gonzalez combined to allow just five hits and one unearned run as the Dragons topped the Lansing Lugnuts 5-1 on Friday night.  The Dragons took three-out-of-four in the series against the Lugnuts, who had the best record in all of Minor League Baseball entering the set.

Gerson (6-7) tossed six innings, allowing four hits and no runs with two walks and four strikeouts to earn the win.  Gonzalez earned his first save by working the final three innings.  He allowed one hit and an unearned run with one walk and five strikeouts.

The Dragons took the lead in the first inning.  For the fourth straight night, Juan Perez opened the first with a hit.  Sammy Diaz walked and with one out, Perez and Diaz pulled off a double steal.  Yorman Rodriguez delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in Perez, and Diaz scored on Sean Buckley’s two-out single to make it 2-0.

The Dragons added two more runs in the third.  Diaz singled to start the inning and raced around to third on a base hit to right by Joe Terry.  Rodriguez flied out to deep center field to bring in Diaz.  Terry advanced from first to third on an error and scored on Sean Buckley’s ground out to make it 4-0.

In the sixth, Dayton’s Junior Arias reached on an infield single, stole second, stole third, and scored on Nick O’Shea’s single to right to give the Dragons a 5-0 lead.

Lansing scored their only run in the eighth.  With one out, Chris Peters reached on a throwing error by O’Shea, the Dragons catcher, after a dropped third strike.  K.C. Hobson then tripled to center field to bring in Peters and make it 5-1, but Gonzalez retired the next two hitters and worked a scoreless ninth.

The Dragons finished with nine hits.  Perez was 2 for 4 and stole two bases to lead the attack.  Buckley drove in two runs.  The Dragons were 5 for 5 in base stealing attempts. 

The Dragons (16-24) travel to Midland, Michigan to battle the Great Lakes Loons (17-22) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. (Radio:  WONE 980 AM).  Jacob Johnson (1-4, 5.15) will start for the Dragons against Great Lakes’ Greg Wilborn (1-1, 6.60).