“The pregame meeting that we had between the pitchers and catchers – trust your catcher, go with his lead,” Cardona said. “And it worked out perfectly. Cade Hunter had a day today, and he called a great game.”
Hunter also hit his first home run of the season, Cardona and Brock Bell combined on the Dragons’ first one-hitter since May 24, 2022, and the Dragons defeated Lake County 4-0 at Day Air Ballpark for their seventh win in eight games.
“I’d say out of all the wins this year this is the absolute biggest team win because the ball was in play a lot and a lot of people made plays,” Cardona said.
Cardona (4-4) struck out three and retired the first eight Captains. His two walks over the minimum.
“Cardona is a guy we’ve challenged because he’s shown flashes of being able to do stuff like that when he’s aggressive,” Dragons manager Vince Harrison Jr. said. “We’ve got a little inside joke that I can say a few words to him during the game and it gets him back on track. But all the credit goes to him.”
Cardona said he rarely shook off the pitch Hunter called.
“It just goes to show that we’re on board with each other the pitching staff and the catching crew,” Cardona said.
Bell pitched the final three innings. He walked his first batter and saw the no-hit bid pass on a line-drive single by Jorge Burgos. The inning ended on a double play when right fielder Ethan O’Donnell caught a fly ball and threw the runner out at the plate with a perfect throw to Hunter.
The offense came on a two-run triple in the third by Carlos Jorge, a two-out RBI single by O’Donnell in the sixth and Hunter’s homer down the right-field line in the seventh.
The Dragons are 7-4 in the second half in second-place a game behind West Michigan in the Midwest League East Division. Lake County, the first-half champion, dropped to 5-5.
“We’re just having fun,” Cardona said. “We want to win the second half. We want to show the Reds that some of the best players in the organization are in Dayton right now.”
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