MWL1 West Michigan Whitecaps

13-Inning Marathon Ends with 10-5 Loss

Published on June 19, 2011 under Midwest League (MWL1)
West Michigan Whitecaps News Release


COMSTOCK PARK, MI - The West Michigan Whitecaps ended the first half of the 2011 season with a 13-inning marathon at Fifth Third Ballpark, ultimately losing to the Lake County Captains, 10-5, in front of a Father's Day crowd of 6,925.

West Michigan (32-37) missed out on the series sweep with the loss, but still heads into the All-Star break with 11 wins in their last 15 games. The Whitecaps held four separate leads on Sunday afternoon, but could not pull away as Lake County (28-41) rallied back to snap their 10-game losing streak.

As the game stretched into extra innings tied at 5-5, the ‘Caps missed out on a series of opportunities for a walk-off win. Steven Moya led off the 11th with a double and advanced to third on an error, but three straight groundouts left him stranded 90 feet away. Hernan Perez led off the 12th with a single and was bunted to second, but a pair of groundouts left him standing at third base as West Michigan squandered another rally.

In the top of the 13th, the Captains took advantage.

Having already thrown 3.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, Patrick Cooper could not make it out of the 13th. Jordan Casas led off with a bunt single and Dwight Childs laid down a sacrifice, but James Robbins' aggressive throw towards second base bounced away to the outfield. That put runners at the corners with nobody out for Nick Bartalone, who promptly broke the tie with a single to center. The wheels came off from there, as Lake County sent 10 men to the plate in the inning and added two-run singles by both LeVon Washington and Giovanny Urshela for the 10-5 final.

Nick Sarianides (4-3) finished things off with a scoreless bottom of the 13th, picking up the win with two shutout innings of relief.

Cooper (3-4) suffered the loss, allowing five runs on seven hits over 4.1 innings following the rough finish.

The game swung back and forth throughout as West Michigan kept jumping ahead and Lake County continually fought back.

Early on, it was Nick Castellanos providing the scoring for the Whitecaps offense.

The 19-year-old prospect singled home Perez with two outs in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. After the Captains tied the score at 1-1, Castellanos came up with another big two-out hit in the bottom of the third. The Tigers' top pick in the 2010 draft stepped to the plate with runners at first and second and smacked an opposite-field double into the gap in right-center, plating both runners to put West Michigan back in front, 3-1.

Bartalone tied the score at 3-3 in the top of the fourth with a two-out single, and the two clubs continued to go tit for tat the rest of the way.

Robbins smacked a run-scoring hit in the sixth as the Whitecaps recaptured a 4-3 advantage, but Urshela's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth evened the score. Rob Brantly led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple that turned into another go-ahead run, but Carlos Moncrief countered with a run-scoring single in the ninth as the Captains tied the game again - this time at 5-5 - to force extra innings.

Following the Midwest League All-Star break, the Whitecaps will open the second half of the season on the road with a 7:30 p.m. first pitch on Friday night against the South Bend Silver Hawks. They will return to Fifth Third Ballpark on Monday, June 27, for a 7:00 p.m. game that will feature the popular Dime Dogs promotion with 10-cent hot dogs. It will also be an All Faiths Night courtesy of JQ 99 FM, offering half-price box or reserved seats for fans that bring a church or community bulletin to the box office. Group and individual tickets can be reserved by calling the Whitecaps front office at 616-784-4131 or visiting whitecapsbaseball.com.

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Midwest League Stories from June 19, 2011


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