The Dragons fell behind 5-1 after three innings but scored two runs in the fourth and three in the seventh to get the lead.
The Dragons scored an unearned run in the top of the first inning to take a brief lead. Dayton’s Jacob Hurtubise reached on an error to start the game, went to second base on a wild pitch, stole third, and scored on Rey’s sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. But South Bend scored three runs in the bottom of the first and two more in the third to jump out to a 5-1 lead.
The Dragons cut into the deficit in the fourth inning when Eric Yang singled with one out and the next two batters, Quincy McAfee and Quin Cotton, drew walks. With two outs, Jose Tello lined a single to center to drive in Yang and McAfee to make it 5-3.
The Dragons put together a big inning in the seventh to take the lead. Michael Siani singled, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out, and after Victor Ruiz walked, Siani scored on Hurtubise’s single to right to make it 5-4. Rey, who has hit safely in all 11 games he’s played this season, followed with a double over the head of the center fielder to drive in both Ruiz and Hurtubise and give Dayton a 6-5 lead.
Dragons starting pitcher Noah Davis worked 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Salinas replaced Davis with one out in the fifth and combined with Peguero to allow just one base runner over the remainder of the game.
Eric Yang was 2 for 3 with a walk. Rey drove in three runs to raise his league-leading total to 19. No other player in the league had more than 10 entering Tuesday’s games.
The win kept the Dragons (9-4) in a first-place tie with Lake County, who defeated Great Lakes on Tuesday.