“I’m never OK with the loss,” he said emphatically.
And he certainly wasn’t OK with the way his Dayton Dragons lost 2-1 to Lake County in 10 innings Wednesday night.
The Dragons’ pitching continued to shine, but an offense that he said Tuesday night has yet to hit its stride, stumbled through scoring opportunities in six different innings.
“There’s times when you can accept how the game went,” Harrison Jr. said. “But not when we don’t take advantage or we don’t do anything to help ourselves win.”
Sal Stewart hit a two-out double in the first inning and moved to third when Cam Collier reached base on a dropped third strike. But Jay Allen II popped up. Logan Tanner hit another two-out double in the second, but Cade Hunter popped up.
Hector Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth for the only run, but Hunter was stranded at second. In the seventh, Leo Balcazar led off with a single and Tanner walked. But that’s as far as they got.
In the sixth, Stewart led off with another double. But Cam Collier failed to move Stewart to third and the potential rally never materialized.
Mistakes hurt the Dragons in both halves of the 10th inning. With one out, Simon Miller (0-1) walked light-hitting Johnny Tincher. After getting the second out on a strikeout, leadoff man Angel Genao, a .319 hitter, lined a single to left to drive in the go-ahead run.
The Dragons started the bottom of the 10th well when Hunter was hit by the first pitch. With runners at first and second, lead-off batter Hector Rodriguez tried to bunt them over. But he popped it up for the first out. Then Carlos Jorge popped up for the second out.
The Captains walked Stewart to load the bases. Stewart turned excitedly to pump up the dugout before running to first. Then left-hander Adam Tulloch challenged the left-handed hitting Collier with the first pitch and got a ground ball back to the mound to end the game.
Jose Franco started for the Dragons and allowed one hit in three innings. Easton Sikorski pitched a perfect fourth. Trey Braithwaite made his Dayton debut and allowed one run in two innings. Arij Fransen allowed two hits in the seventh and eighth innings. Miller pitched a perfect ninth before allowing the winning run in the 10th.
The Dragons are leading all of high-A baseball (30 teams) in ERA since May 12.
“Anytime you got a chance at the end that’s all you can ask for,” Harrison Jr. said. “In those situations in games like that you need guys to get big hits. When you don’t move runners over it comes back to haunt you.”
The Dragons are 7-5 in the second half of the Midwest League season and 41-37 overall. They sit in second place in the East Division a game behind West Michigan and game ahead of Lake County. The series moves to Lake County for games Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Dragons return home Tuesday for a six-game series against South Bend, which is in last place in the West Division.
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