Dayton can notch their first series victory of the season with a win Friday night. The Dragons and Snappers have split the first two games of the three-game set.
Dayton took the lead in the first inning when Dave Sappelt walked to start the game, went to second on Cody Puckett’s ground out, and eventually scored on a two-out single by Carlos Mendez to make it 1-0.
Dragons starting pitcher Leonardo Astorga ran into problems in the third, allowing an infield hit, three consecutive walks, and a two-run single by Angel Morales as Beloit scored three times to take a 3-1 lead.
The Dragons scored twice in the fourth to tie the game. Humberto Sosa walked to start the inning and went to second on a single to center by Kevin Coddington. Frank Pfister followed with a double off the left field fence to bring in Sosa, and Sappelt’s sacrifice fly to center scored Coddington to tie the game at 3-3.
But Beloit answered with two runs against Dragons reliever Jesus Carnevale (0-1) in the bottom of the fourth. Carnevale issued back-to-back walks to start the inning. After getting James Beresford to ground out to third, Carnevale was lifted and replaced by Lance Janke. Bigley greeted Janke with a double to left-center field, bringing in both runners, to make it 5-3.
Dayton scored one run in the seventh on a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Byron Wiley to make it 5-4, but could get no closer. Morales connected on a solo homer for the Snappers in the bottom of the seventh to close out the scoring.
Dayton finished with eight hits. Mendez, Coddington, and Pfister each collected two hits. Coddington lifted his batting average to .400 on the season.
The Dragons meet Beloit at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the finale of the three game set. J.C. Sulbaran, a highly-regarded prospect who pitched for Team Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic as a 19-year-old, will start for Dayton and make his professional baseball debut. The Dragons next home game is May 5th against the Clinton Lumber Kings at Fifth Third Field.
Notes: The Dragons activated outfielder Tony Brown from the disabled list prior to the game. Outfielder Brandon Menchaca was removed from the roster. His assignment will be determined. The Dragons will have to make another roster move prior to Friday’s game to create a spot for Sulbaran.