The Dragons made important plays and managerial moves to keep the score at 1-1 through seven innings. Then the release came.
Anthony Stephan hit an 0-2 pitch on a line down the right-field line for a solo home run to break the tie in the eighth inning. He showed how much the homer meant to him as he rounded the bases.
In the top of the ninth, Lake County’s Jaison Chourio hit a hard ground ball to first baseman Carter Graham that started a game-ending 3-6-3 double play. When the ball was hit, every person in the Dragons dugout raised up. When the ball snapped Graham’s glove on the return throw, the dugout erupted with joy.
The Dragons had won 2-1. And it was as much fun for them as a walk-off win.
“These fans show up day in, day out ... Saturday night, Day Air, it was packed,” Stephan said while trying to catch his breath. “I just love winning with the boys. That’s what it’s all about.”
Stephan said Lake County reliever Sean Matson threw a good changeup for a first strike on a foul ball. Another foul made the count 0-2. Then the next swing changed the game.
“I was just looking for something over the plate to drive, try to get on base for the team, but he hung a little changeup, put some barrel on it,” Stephan said of his seventh homer.
As the baseball traveled there was concern across the ballpark that it would drift foul.
“At first I was worried, but once I saw it go a little bit I thought it was just going to be off the wall,” Stephan said. “But we got lucky. It carried over.”
Striking for big hits and making big pitches to get big outs don’t come easy for the Dragons (13-25 second half, 34-69 overall). After what he saw, manager Vince Harrison Jr. was hustling his players into the clubhouse for their post-win celebration rituals.
“We’ve talked and it feels like a record on repeat, but just someone step up and make a play,” he said. “This team has been energized by plays. It was just big by Steph, the whole team, to just keep swinging, looking for those opportunities.”
Harrison Jr. also didn’t let an opportunity pass by to try to make a difference. He made every managerial move he could in the sixth and seventh innings — a timely pitching change, a pinch runner and an intentional walk of Lake County’s most dangerous hitter.
“Trying to win,” he said. “We had the availability to do it tonight. It’s all predicated on how the game is going.”
In a 1-1 game, Harrison Jr. said he had to treat the sixth inning like it was the ninth.
Before the sixth began he surely would have loved to leave starter Nestor Lorant in for more. But 80 pitches signaled the end to his time. Lorant took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before allowing a single after a leadoff walk. He set down the next three batters to end the inning. In addition to the hit, Lorant walked three and struck out six.
Lorant needed a strong start following a long stretch of tough outings that saw his ERA rise to 7.00.
“I thought he mixed well,” Harrison Jr. said. “Big emphasis today on being in the zone early and allowing his other stuff to work. We saw it the other day with [Johnathan] Harmon. Harmon was in the zone early, got a lot of contact early. Nestor did the same thing which allowed him to mix his pitches better.”
Left-hander Joseph Menefee started the sixth with a groundout and popup. Then a walk and a couple of singles tied the score. Common practice is for pitchers to finish the inning they started. But this time Harrison Jr. turned to right-hander Cody Adcock. After hitting a batter, he got a ground out to end the inning.
“The momentum shifted right there,” Harrison Jr. said of Lake County’s tying run. “To me, that was the biggest moment of the game, and I wasn’t going to let that get away. That’s why we made the decision to try to play the matchups and went to Cody there. He picked us up.”
Catcher Diego Omana singled to lead off the seventh, but he is the Dragons’ slowest runner. So Harrison Jr. sent in Myles Smith to pinch run. It didn’t pay off with a run, but it was the move Harrison Jr. knew he had to make.
“If we hit the ball in the gap and we leave that guy stranded, you guys are yelling at me, I’m kicking myself for not doing it,” he said. “One play can change the game.”
Maick Collado led off Lake County’s eighth with a double. Adcock got the next two outs while Collado moved to third. Harrison Jr. chose to intentionally walk third-place hitter Ralphy Velazquez to set up a force play, which is how the inning ended.
“We had to play it like that, to manage it a little closer,” Harrison Jr. said. “I wasn’t going to let Velazquez beat us.”
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