MWL1 Great Lakes Loons

Loons Battle Back for the 7-6 Win

Published on June 17, 2010 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Great Lakes Loons News Release


MIDLAND, MI - Down 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth, the Great Lakes Loons collected one run in each of the final four frames to surpass the South Bend Silver Hawks for the 7-6 victory Thursday night at Dow Diamond. Loons All-Star first baseman Jerry Sands scored the game-winning run on a solo-homer, his league-leading 18th of the season, that rang off the middle of the flagpole in left field.

"All night, they'd been throwing me sliders," Sands explained. [With a 3-2 count] I wasn't going to be surprised if [Worthington] threw me a slider. I was really trying to stay the other way, stay on a ball. But he threw me a fastball and I just turned on it, put a good swing on it and luckily it went out. It's big because we're trying to stay in this race."

The win, coupled with Lake County's 1-0 loss to West Michigan, moves the Great Lakes Loons into first place of the Eastern Division; the first time in franchise history the team has claimed sole possession.

The South Bend Silver Hawks took the initial lead in the first inning when third baseman Bobby Borchering lifted one of Allen Webster's pitches over the right field wall for the early 2-0 lead. But the Loons responded in the bottom of the inning with three runs on four hits off of 18-year-old Scottie Allen. Outfielder Angelo Songco singled from the two-spot to extend his hit-streak to 11 games and advanced to third on a double by Brian Cavazos-Galvez. Sands hit a soft single over the infielders to score both base runners. Later in the inning, the Loons designated hitter Jaime Ortiz hit a single to centerfield that scored Sands from second for the Loons first lead of the ball game, 3-2.

After tying the game at three runs apiece on a sacrifice-fly in the third, the Silver Hawks pulled ahead of the Loons for the second time, this time on a three-run homer to left field by clean-up batter Matt Davidson in the fifth inning.

Then the Loons began to chip away at South Bend's lead one run at a time, starting in the bottom of the fifth, when Galvez and Sands hit back-to-back doubles to left field to make it 6-4.

In the sixth, with Christian Lara on first, Songco skipped a double up the right field line that deflected off of first baseman Andrew Fie's glove towards the Loons bullpen. Trying to catch Songco at second, right fielder Alberto Diaz tossed the ball to second but Songco's slide interrupted the catch, allowing Lara to score on the throwing error while the ball trickled towards left field.

Ortiz scored in the seventh on a fielder's choice by shortstop David Narodowski. With the bases loaded and two outs, he fielded a routine grounder, but instead of throwing to first, he turned to second to try to beat out Bryant Hernandez who had a good jump on the play. Hernandez was safe at second and Ortiz crossed home plate to again tie the game, setting the stage for Sands two-out homer in the following inning.

"There's nobody on this club that's ever going to give up on anything and the night just shows," Sands said of the team. "We just started chipping away, one by one by one, and ended up getting the win."

Webster started on the hill for Great Lakes and allowed six runs on four hits over five innings of work. The 20-year-old fanned seven and walked four before being relieved by Andy Suiter. Suiter and J.B. Paxson combined for four hitless innings, with five strikeouts to one walk. Paxson improved his record to 2-1, while South Bend reliever Adam Worthington was tagged with the loss.

The win Thursday completes the Loons first-half sweep of the Silver Hawks, going 12-0 against South Bend this season. The two teams have nine games scheduled against one another in the second-half: six at Dow Diamond, three away. Since the beginning of 2009, the Loons hold a 26-2 record against the S-Hawks.

The Loons hit the road Friday for their final trip away from Dow Diamond before the all-star break. Great Lakes travels to Dayton for the three-game series and will send RHP Matt Magill (2-0, 3.33) to the mound against the Dragons right-handed hurler Jacob Johnson (3-4, 4.64).

Check out the Great Lakes Loons Statistics

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Midwest League Stories from June 17, 2010


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