Loons top Dragons in extra innings

Dayton's Brooks Crawford pitches earlier this season against West Michigan at Day Air Ballpark. Jeff Gilbert/CONTRIBUTED

Dayton's Brooks Crawford pitches earlier this season against West Michigan at Day Air Ballpark. Jeff Gilbert/CONTRIBUTED

The Great Lakes Loons scored three runs in the top of the 10th inning and went on to defeat the Dayton Dragons 8-5 on Friday night. 

The Dragons battled back from an early 5-1 deficit to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. They scored one run in the fourth, two in the seventh, and one in the eighth.

Austin Callahan went 3 for 5 with a double for the Dragons. He drove in a run with a single in the seventh to pull the Dragons within one. Then in the eighth, after Ashton Creal walked to start the inning and went to third on Edwin Arroyo’s single, Austin Hendrick delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to score Creal and tie the game. The Dragons nearly took the lead in the inning. Arroyo was at third with two outs when Ruben Ibarra drilled a hard line drive directly at the third baseman to end the threat.

In the 10th, Jake Vogel delivered a one-out, two-run single for the Loons to highlight a three-run inning. The Dragons were retired in order in the bottom of the 10th as they lost their fifth straight game. The Dragons have gone to extra innings in five of their last 10 games, including Thursday and Friday vs. the Loons.

Dayton relievers Brooks Crawford and Dennis Boatman combined for five scoreless innings to allow the Dragons to erase the four-run deficit. Crawford tossed three innings, retiring all nine batters he faced, including five on strikeouts. Boatman had his best game of the season, tossing two scoreless innings and striking out three.

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