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Lake County's Walk-off Home Run Stuns Loons

May 25, 2018 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Great Lakes Loons News Release


EASTLAKE, Ohio - Lake County first baseman Ulysses Cantu launched a two-run home run to left field and the Captains, who trailed 3-0 as late as the bottom of the eighth inning, stole game one from the Loons 4-3 on a gorgeous Friday evening east of Cleveland.

It's the first time the Loons' have suffered a loss on a walk-off home run since August 21, 2012 when West Michigan's Jeff McVaney went deep on right-hander Matt Shelton in a 6-5 defeat.

Southpaw Justin Hoyt took the loss and blew the save for the Loons. Hoyt entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with Lake County's rally underway and struck out fellow lefty Nolan Jones to preserve the Loons' lead until the ninth.

Hoyt struck out another lefty batter, Will Benson, who is the Midwest League co-leader in home runs with nine, to begin the ninth. Lake County field manager Luke Carlin called for Jonathan Laureano off the bench to pinch-hit for catcher Josh Rolette, a move that was promptly validated when Laureano doubled a 3-2 pitch off the wall to put the tying runner in scoring position with one out. Cantu smoked a 1-2 into the bleachers over the left field wall to end the game.

Cracks began to emerge in the Loons' lead in the eighth when Carlos Rincon misjudged a line drive into right field off the bat of Todd Isaacs. Rincon came up and dove at the ball, but did not make catch, which allowed Cantu to score Lake County's first run of the game on an RBI triple. Tyler Friis hit the second extra-base hit of the inning for Lake County off Dan Jagiello to make the score 3-2.

The Loons built a lead almost immediately on Friday Zach McKinstry hit a big fly off southpaw Juan Hillman two batters into the ballgame. McKinstry, who played in his second game after a month-long stint on the Disabled List with a finger sprain, has gone deep twice this season with Great Lakes and has a hit in each of first two games back.

The Loons added to their lead in the top off the fifth off Hillman when Romer Cuadrado drove in a run on a two-out single, but Hillman never allowed the Loons to truly tee-off over the course of his seven innings.

Game two in the Memorial Day weekend series is Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

The Great Lakes Loons have been the Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers since the team's inception in 2007. Dow Diamond serves as the team's home and also houses the Michigan Baseball Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, and ESPN 100.9-FM. For tickets or information about the Loons, call 989-837-BALL or visit Loons.com.

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