MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dragons Lose Big Lead, See Losing Streak Reach Nine

April 21, 2009 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Dayton, Ohio-The Great Lakes Loons battled back from a 6-1 deficit after seven innings to score two runs in the eighth and four in the ninth to defeat the Dayton Dragons 7-6 on Tuesday night at Fifth Third Field. The loss was the Dragons' ninth in a row and tied a club record for consecutive losses set in 2004. Dayton fell to 1-10 on the season.

Dayton starting pitcher Matt Fairel struck out 12 batters over six dominant innings and left with a 6-1 lead. Fairel struck out the first five batters of the game and completed his outing by striking out the side in order in the sixth, finishing just two strikeouts short of the club record set in 2001 by Josh Hall. Fairel allowed four hits and one run with one walk over his six innings.

Andrew Bowman replaced Fairel on the mound to start the seventh and pitched a perfect inning before running into problems in the eighth when he allowed four hits and a walk leading to two runs as Great Lakes pulled to within three at 6-3. Aguido Gonzalez entered the game to record the final two outs in the eighth with the bases loaded to preserve the lead.

But Gonzalez ran into big problems in the ninth. After allowing a double and a single to start the inning, Gonzalez retired the next two batters and was within an out of his first save. But he allowed a walk to put the tying run on base and then an RBI single to Austin Gallagher as Great Lakes pulled to within a run at 6-5. Scott Gaffney replaced Gonzalez and walked Tony Delmonico to load the bases and push the potential winning run to second. Kyle Russell followed with a line drive single to right to drive in two runs and give Great Lakes a 7-6 lead.

The Dragons were retired in order in the bottom of the ninth by Great Lakes closer Javy Guerra, who earned his third save.

Frank Pfister collected three hits and Dave Sappelt added two while Humberto Sosa added a two-run double to lead the Dragons attack. Sappelt extended his hitting streak to eight straight games.

The Dragons jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the top of the third inning. Pfister led off the inning with a single to center and went to second on Miguel Rojas' ground out. Pfister went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Sappelt's single to right to make it 1-0. After Cody Puckett popped to third, Kyle Day delivered a hit-and-run single to right to move Sappelt to third. Tony Brown then delivered a hard single through the middle to score Sappelt and make it 2-0. Sosa followed with a double over the head of the center fielder to bring in both Day and Brown to make it 4-0.

Great Lakes scored one run in the top of the fourth on a run-scoring single with one out by Delmonico, their first hit of the game. Russell added a double to right to move Delmonico to third with two outs, but Dragons catcher Jordan Wideman picked Russell off second base to end the threat.

The Dragons answered with two runs in the fourth. Pfister led off the frame with a double to center and Rojas followed with a bunt single to move Pfister to third. Sappelt hit a ground ball to short that was mishandled by Dee Gordon for an error as Pfister scored. Day and Brown both walked with two out to force in Rojas and make it 6-1, a score that would not change until the eighth inning.

The Dragons and Loons meet in game two of the four game series at Fifth Third Field on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Dayton's Josh Ravin (1-1, 3.60) will start against Bobby Blevins (1-1, 4.66) of Great Lakes.

Notes: Dragons pitchers struck out 17 Loons hitters to fall one short of the Dayton club record...Gonzalez, who allowed four runs over the entire 2008 season in 27 games, was charged with four runs in the ninth to suffer the loss.

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