On Thursday, Fort Wayne hit home runs in each of the first three innings and opened a lead of 6-2 through the first four frames. Dayton’s Jack Rogers had a two-run triple for the Dragons in the third to account for their first two runs.
The Dragons started back in the fifth inning. Yan Contreras started the rally with a triple off the center field fence, and with two outs, Austin Callahan drove him in with a double to left. Callahan scored on a single to right by Edwin Arroyo to make it 6-4.
The Dragons took the lead in the seventh. Callahan started the inning with a single, went to second on an error, and scored on Arroyo’s single to make it 6-5. With one out, Mat Nelson singled to drive in Arroyo from second to tie the game. Thompson tripled to right-center to bring in Nelson from first and give the Dragons a 7-6 lead. Wendell Marrero followed with a single to left to drive in Thompson and make it 8-6.
The Dayton bullpen shut down the Fort Wayne offense, which had collected eight hits and six runs over the first four innings. Myles Gayman (5-1) worked two and one-third shutout innings to earn the win. Jake Gozzo followed Gayman and pitched the seventh and eighth innings, allowing no hits and no runs. Braxton Roxby pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his third save.
Arroyo, Callahan and Nelson had two hits apiece for Dayton.
The win lifted the Dragons back to the .500 mark at 30-30 with six games to play in the first half season.
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