Stephenson leads Dragons to victory

Dayton, Ohio (WDTN) -  

Robert Stephenson fired five strong innings to earn his second straight victory as the Dayton Dragons defeated the Lansing Lugnuts 4-2 on Wednesday night.  A crowd of 8,540 saw the game at Fifth Third Field.

Stephenson, the Cincinnati Reds first round draft pick in 2011, made his home debut.  Featuring a fastball ranging mostly from 95-98 miles per hour, he allowed only one run, on a solo home run, and walked no one over five innings.  Stephenson allowed three hits and struck out five.

The Dragons scored three runs in the first inning to take an early lead.  The inning began with back-to-back singles by Juan Perez and Ryan Wright.  Joe Terry was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no one out.  Yorman Rodriguez then grounded to third.  Lansing’s Gustavo Pierre fielded the ball and stepped on third for the force on Wright, but he threw wildly to first.  Perez scored, Terry went to third, and Rodriguez advanced to second.  Kyle Waldrop then grounded to second, but the throw to first by Chris Peters was off target, allowing both Terry and Rodriguez to score to make it 3-0.

Lansing’s Michael Crouse belted a solo home run in the third, and the Lugnuts scored one run in the seventh on an RBI single by K.C. Hobson to make it 3-2.

Dayton got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Sean Buckley doubled down the left field line, went to third on Juan Silva’s bunt single, and scored on a ground out by Yovan Gonzalez to make it 4-2.  Dragons reliever Mike Dennhardt shut down the Lugnuts over the final two innings to preserve the win for Stephenson.

Dragons reliever El’Hajj Muhammad followed Stephenson and worked two innings, allowing one hit, one walk, and an unearned run.  He struck out two.  Dennhardt replaced Muhammad and worked the final two innings to earn his first career save.  He allowed only one base runner, on a single in the eighth, and struck out two.

The Dragons finished with six hits by six different players.  Buckley’s double was the only extra base hit.