4 Homers Pave Way for Cubs Victory
June 25, 2021 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release
The Cubs put up a season-high four homers en route to a 10-5 win.
South Bend (19-26) got the scoring going in the first inning. Delvin Zinn reached on an error by third baseman Kelvin Melean to start the home half of the first inning. Two batters later Nelson Velazquez launched his seventh home run of the season and the Cubs took a two-run lead.
Fort Wayne got one run back off Ryan Jensen in the third inning on a two-out single from Melean, but he was thrown out trying to advance to second on a dart from catcher Harrison Wenson.
Fort Wayne would take the lead in the next inning. Reinaldo Ilarraza hit his first home run of the season to start the inning and tie the game up, 2-2. After a Justin Lopez single and a couple of walks from Jensen the TinCaps loaded the bases with one down. Grant Little gave Fort Wayne their first lead on a sac-fly and Adam Kerner followed up with a double to bring home Luis Almanzar, making it a 4-2 deficit for the Cubs.
But South Bend came right back with three runs of their own. Velazquez started off the next inning with a solo-blast, his second homer of the game and eighth of the season. Jake Slaughter followed with a single and the next two batters were retired, bringing up Matt Warkentin. Warkentin made his MiLB debut on Thursday and in the fourth inning he registered his first hit, a herculean blast to center to put the Cubs back in front 5-4.
Joe Nahas took the Cubs most of the way from there out of the bullpen in his South Bend debut after being called up from Myrtle Beach earlier in the week. The right-hander logged four innings and allowed one run, while stranding the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
South Bend was coming off back-to-back games giving up eight runs in the seventh inning. But tonight the seventh was all theirs. Five more runs came in, the first on Zinn's second home run of the season. The next four runs all came in to score on two errors by Melean at third base, his second and third errors of the game.
The Cubs took a 10-5 lead into the ninth inning and Eury Ramos would record the final three outs to seal a South Bend victory.
Next up: RHP Chris Kachmar takes the mound for the Cubs in game five of this series vs. LHP Ethan Elliott of Fort Wayne. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm ET at Four Winds Field.
Midwest League Stories from June 25, 2021
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