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Fort Wayne TinCaps

Schulz Sparks TinCaps to Win

August 4, 2014 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Fort Wayne TinCaps News Release


FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- With both his bat and his arm, Nick Schulz helped lead the TinCaps to a 4-3 win over the Lansing Lugnuts on Monday night at Parkview Field in front of a crowd of 6,017. Batting eighth, Schulz hit two solo home runs, including a go-ahead shot in the bottom of the seventh, and threw out a potential tying run at the plate from right field in the top of the eighth.

Fort Wayne (20-23, 50-62) has won three games in a row and nine of their last 12. Since July 12, the TinCaps have the third best record in the 16-team Midwest League at 15-7.

While Schulz shined at the plate and in the field, Fort Wayne starter Kyle Lloyd struck out 10 batters in five innings. Lloyd, who didn't join the TinCaps' rotation until May 6, now leads the Midwest League with 120 strikeouts on the season. The right-hander allowed only two earned runs (three in all) before giving way to his roommate, Justin Livengood.

Livengood (7-1) tossed three scoreless innings, extending a stretch of consecutive frames without an earned run allowed to 15 2/3 innings. The righty reliever got a big boost in the eighth with Lansing's D.J. Davis at third base and one out when David Harris hit the ball to medium-right field. Schulz made the catch and came up firing home. Catcher Adolfo Reina received the throw on a bounce and while blocking the plate, applied a tag on Davis to end the inning and preserve a 4-3 Fort Wayne lead.

Nick Mutz (9) worked around a leadoff error in the ninth to notch the save -- his first since June 22.

Afterwards, a jubilant team celebrated by pie-ing Schulz in the face during a postgame interview in the dugout.

The TinCaps had to come from behind twice Monday to win. Lansing struck first with an unearned run in the top of the third before Schulz tied the game, 1-1, with his first longball of the night. After the Lugnuts retook the lead with a pair of runs in fourth, Fort Wayne got one run back in the bottom half with an opposite-field home run by Dustin Peterson.

Fernando Perez tied the game with a single to score Trea Turner -- who had a three-hit night and raised his on-base percentage to .506 through his first 19 games in the Midwest League -- in the sixth. Schulz put the TinCaps on top for the first time in the game in the home seventh when he vaulted another homer to left that made it 4-3.

The San Jose State alum went undrafted a year ago. Schulz wasn't signed by the Padres until May and joined Fort Wayne during the final week of June. He now has four home runs and became the second TinCap this season to have a two-homer game. Reina pulled off the feat at Quad Cities on July 17.

Fort Wayne goes for a fourth consecutive win on Tuesday night at Parkview Field against Lansing at 7:05. Left-hander Jeffery Enloe is slated to start for the TinCaps against Miguel Castro. The game can be heard on ESPN Radio 1380, TinCaps.com, and the TuneIn Radio app. It can also be viewed on XFINITY Channel 81.

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