Dragons win 7-0, return home alive in playoff chase

Dayton starter Carson Rudd and two other pitchers combined on a two-hitter Sunday in a 7-0 win at Great Lakes.. Jeff Gilbert/FILE

Dayton starter Carson Rudd and two other pitchers combined on a two-hitter Sunday in a 7-0 win at Great Lakes.. Jeff Gilbert/FILE

Dayton pitchers Carson Rudd, Jacob Heatherly and Jayvien Sandridge combined on a two-hit shutout as the Dragons defeated the Great Lakes Loons 7-0 on Sunday afternoon. Dayton won four of six games in the series.

The Dragons win coupled with a loss by West Michigan left Dayton 2 1/2 games out of first place in the Midwest League East Division standings. There are six games to play in the second-half season.

Rudd (5-7) worked five innings, allowing just three base runners on two hits and a walk, striking out five to earn the win.Heatherly tossed two scoreless innings and Sandridge had a dominant final two innings, retiring all six he faced including five on strikeouts.

The Dragons jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning. After Allan Cerda was hit by a pitch and Austin Hendrick walked, Justice Thompson lined a single to left field to drive in Cerda, and Hendrick eventually scored on a sacrifice fly from Hector Rodriguez.

In the third, the Dragons tacked on two more runs. The inning began with back-to-back singles by Edwin Arroyo and Sal Stewart, and with one out, Cerda lined a single to left to drive in Arroyo. Stewart scored on a sacrifice fly by Hendrick to make it 4-0.

The Dragons had their third two-run inning in the seventh, taking advantage of two errors in the inning and a double steal by Arroyo and Stewart. One run scored on an error, and the other came on a sacrifice fly by Cerda.

The Dragons scored again in the eighth on a solo home run by Thompson, his ninth, to close out the scoring. Thompson, Arroyo, Rodriguez, and Carlos Jorge each had two hits for the Dragons.

TUESDAY’S GAME

Fort Wayne at Dayton, 7:05 p.m., 980

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