Fort Wayne took advantage of 10 walks issued by Dayton pitchers, including two that came with the bases loaded in the fifth. The Dragons battled back from a three-run deficit to take the lead once in the game but could not do it a second time.
Fort Wayne scored two runs in the first to jump out to an early lead. The Dragons scored one in the top of the second on Mat Nelson’s two-out RBI single, but Fort Wayne responded with two in the bottom of the second to pull ahead 4-1.
The Dragons took the lead with four runs in the top of the fifth. The rally started with back-to-back singles by Nelson and Carlos Jorge, and Sal Stewart delivered a two-run single to make it 4-3. Stewart scored on a single by Jack Rogers to tie the game, and Ruben Ibarra added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to bring in Cade Hunter from third and give the Dragons a 5-4 lead.
But Fort Wayne got all four runs back in their half of the fifth, taking advantage of four walks in the inning to jump back ahead 8-5.
In the sixth, Dayton’s Edwin Arroyo drilled a solo home run, his 11th homer of the year, to make it 8-6, and Ibarra hit a solo homer in the eighth, his 12th, to pull the Dragons to within a run at 8-7. Fort Wayne took advantage of an error by Arroyo that allowed a run to score in the bottom of the eighth to make it 9-7.
In the ninth inning, Hunter led off with a single and went to second when Tyler Callihan was hit by a pitch with one out. Ibarra followed with a single to left to load the bases. Austin Hendrick was retired on a sacrifice fly to right field that brought in Hunter to make it 9-8 as Callihan moved to third on the play, but Nelson struck out swinging to end the game.
The Dragons finished with 12 hits. Nelson was 3 for 5 with an RBI and a run scored. Ibarra had two hits and drove in two. Jorge also had two hits.
Reliever John Murphy (4-2) took the loss. He allowed four runs in 1/3 of an inning, giving up four walks and two hits.
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