Dragons fall in series opener at Lake County

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

The Lake County Captains scored runs in seven consecutive innings on the way to defeating the Dayton Dragons 9-5 on Tuesday night. The game was the opener to a six-game series.

Dayton’s Jay Allen II led an eight-hit attack with three hits, including a home run on the first pitch of the game. Allen raised his batting average to .387 on the season.

After a rain delay of one hour, 18 minutes in Lake County, Allen hit the first pitch of the game for a home run to left field, his sixth homer of the year in 17 games played. Lake County tied the game in the second and then took a 3-1 lead with two runs in the third as they started their string of seven straight innings with at least one run.

The Dragons came back to tie the game without a hit in the fourth, taking advantage of three straight walks to start the inning followed by a two-out throwing error that allowed two runs to score and make it 3-3.

But Lake County regained the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two runs to make it 5-3. They added single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth to go ahead 9-3.

The Dragons got three consecutive singles with one out in the ninth from Leo Balcazar, Ruben Ibarra, and Logan Tanner, and they were one batter away from getting the tying run to the plate before a pair of ground outs ended the game.

Dragons starting pitcher Ryan Cardona (2-1) was charged with the loss.  He worked three and two-thirds innings, allowing five runs on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

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