The Dragons jumped out to a first inning lead when Victor Acosta led off the inning with a double, advanced to third on Leo Balcazar’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on a single to right-center field by Yerlin Confidan to make it 1-0.
Lansing tied the game with a run in the second and took the lead in the third on a solo home run by T.J. Schofield-Sam to make it 2-1.
The Dragons enjoyed a big inning in the sixth for the lead. With one out, Carlos Jorge singled to center and then advanced to third on a hit to right by Ariel Almonte. Johnny Ascanio’s infield ground out brought in Jorge to tie the game, and Connor Burns followed with a long home run to left field to give Dayton a 4-2 lead.
But Lansing immediately answered with their own big inning in the seventh. The Lugnuts loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman before Rodney Green Jr. lined a double to the right field corner that brought in all three runners and gave Lansing a 5-4 lead.
The Dragons did not have a hit over their final three innings at the plate.
Dragons starting pitcher Luke Hayden was lifted due to a high pitch count in the second inning, throwing 29 pitches in the frame. Hayden tossed 1⅔ innings, allowing one run on two hits with three walks and no strikeouts.
Dragons reliever Easton Sikorski was charged with the loss. Sikorski worked three innings and allowed just one hit, but it was the three-run double by Green Jr. in the seventh. Sikorski was charged with one run, leaving his ERA on the year at a remarkable 0.90. He walked one and struck out four.
The Dragons had eight hits in the game. Ariel Almonte had a single and double with a run scored to lead Dayton.
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