Dragons open final home series with 3-2 loss

Dragons manager Dick Schofield admits it’s hard to believe Wednesday night’s game with Lake County was the start of the last home series of the season.

After five months and 134 games, the Dragons began their last three home games with a 3-2 loss at Fifth Third Field.

“It has gone fairly quick,” Schofield said. “Even with our struggles early, it has flown by. There are times you wished it would speed up or slow down and it doesn’t. You think five months is a long time and sometimes it doesn’t seem that long.”

The difference Wednesday came down to capitalizing with two outs.

Lake County scored two of its three runs with two outs, and the third thanks to an error. Dayton, meanwhile, went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position after a run-scoring double by Luis Gonzalez in the fifth and a sacrifice fly one batter later by Mitch Piatnik.

“We didn’t get the hits when we needed them,” Schofield said. “When you only have a few opportunities, two-out RBIs are huge. They maximized their opportunities and when you do that, you normally win.”

Streak snapped: A night after their nine-game home winning streak was snapped Aug. 25, the Dragons snapped their six-game road losing streak by beating Bowling Green, 9-.

The longest road losing streak in franchise history remains eight, set in 2002.

Long time coming: Dayton's 9-0 win at Bowling Green did more than snap a road streak, it marked the Dragons' first complete-game shutout since 2008. Wendolyn Bautista used 100 pitches in going the distance, allowing four base-runners.

The last nine-inning complete-game shutout by a Dayton pitcher was thrown by Enerio Del Rosario in 2008.

Duo streaking: On a night when Zack Shields pushed his hitting streak to double digits, Luis Gonzalez continued to keep pace.

Gonzalez ripped a double to right in the fifth inning to push his streak to nine games. During the streak, Gonzalez is hitting .379.

Shields pushed his streak to 10 with a bloop single in the ninth. Shields had been hitting .344 during his streak.

Smoking opponents: Dayton has had strong finishes to the season from a pair of pitchers.

Starter Ty Boyles has allowed one earned run over his last 23 2/3 innings while reliever Sandy Lugo has 21 strikeouts and has allowed no runs over his last 15 1/3.

On deck: Bautista takes the mound as the Dragons and Captains get together for the middle game of the three-game tonight at 7 at Fifth Third Field.

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