Cerda leads Dragons to walk-off win

Allan Cerda lined a hit off the left-field fence to bring in Elly De La Cruz from third base with the winning run as the Dayton Dragons erased a three-run deficit to defeat the Quad Cities River Bandits 6-5 on Thursday night.

The game, scheduled for seven innings as the first game of a doubleheader, went eight innings. The second game was postponed by rain.

Cerda hit a game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth.

Reds first baseman Joey Votto played for the Dragons on an MLB injury rehab assignment, going 0 for 3 with one walk.

A crowd of 7,882 was in attendance at Day Air Ballpark.

The Dragons and River Bandits will play a doubleheader on Friday night with the first game starting at 5:35 p.m.  Gates will open at 5:00.  Both games on Friday will be seven-inning games.

Cerda has hit four home runs in his last four games, going 8 for 15.

Dayton reliever Stockton (3-0) was credited with the victory, tossing three scoreless innings and allowing just one hit with no hits and four strikeouts.

The Dragons improved to 23-11 on the season while remaining in first place, three games ahead of Great Lakes.