O'Shea rallies Dragons to victory

MIDLAND, Mich. - Nick O’Shea belted a home run, drove in three runs, and scored three times to lead the Dayton Dragons to an 11-5 victory over the Great Lakes Loons on Sunday afternoon.  The Dragons battled back from a 4-1 deficit, getting six runs in the seventh inning to take the lead.

The win was the third straight for the Dragons and their fifth in the last six games.  They have come back from deficits of at least three runs to win the last two.

Great Lakes built a 4-1 lead over the first five innings.  Dayton’s Juan Perez became the team’s first base runner of the game in the fourth when he belted a solo home run to right field, his seventh of the season.  The Loons got a two-run homer by Jeff Hunt in the bottom of the inning to take a three-run advantage.

The Dragons got two runs in the sixth.  O’Shea singled to start the inning and went to third on Perez’s double.  Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jefry Sierra and Joe Terry brought in the two runners to make it 4-3.

The Dayton seventh began when Kyle Waldrop reached on an infield single to start the inning.  Sean Buckley and Juan Silva both walked to load the bases with no one out.  Junior Arias singled to drive in Waldrop and Buckley and give the Dragons a 5-4 lead.  O’Shea singled in Silva to make it 6-4, and Perez’s sacrifice fly scored Arias to give Dayton a 7-4 advantage.  After singles by Sierra and Terry, Yorman Rodriguez singled to left field to drive in two more runs to make it 9-4.

After Hunt belted his second homer of the game for Great Lakes in the bottom of the seventh, O’Shea connected on a two-run homer for the Dragons in the eighth to make it 11-5 and close out the scoring.  It was O’Shea’s fourth homer of the season with all of them coming in the second half.

Dragons starting pitcher James Allen tossed five innings, allowing six hits and four runs with one walk and seven strikeouts.  Dan Jensen (5-9) replaced Allen to start the sixth and worked a perfect inning.  He was credited with the win.  El’Hajj Muhammad worked one inning, allowing one run on two hits with two walks and a strikeout. Mike Dennhardt pitched the final two innings and allowed only one base runner on a walk in the eighth inning.  He extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 18.

The Dragons finished with 15 hits.  O’Shea led the way with three.  Perez had two including a homer and double.  Sierra, Terry, Waldrop, and Arias each had two as well.

The Dragons (18-24) take on the Loons (18-24) on Monday at 7:05 p.m. in the third game of the series.  Robert Stephenson (2-0, 0.90) will make his third start since joining the Dragons.   Great Lakes will counter with Arismendy Ozoria (7-6, 4.62).  The next home game is Saturday, August 11 at Fifth Third Field against the Fort Wayne TinCaps.