MWL1 Great Lakes Loons

Loons Held off by Cougars, 3-2

Published on April 28, 2012 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Great Lakes Loons News Release


MIDLAND, MI - The Great Lakes Loons' late-inning rally came up short Saturday at Dow Diamond as the Kane County Cougars, despite being out hit, defeated the home team by a score of 3-2 .

Down 3-0, the Loons made a push in the seventh inning sparked by a leadoff hit from catcher Jan Vazquez, who had three singles in the contest. The single was followed by a force out at second to make Kevin Taylor the runner at first. Then with two outs, center fielder James Baldwin delivered a single to right field that put runners on the corners and extend his hitting streak to nine games. Infielder Joe Winker kept the hits going with a clutch extra-base knock.

"You're just looking to hit the ball hard and take a good pass at it," Winker said of the two-out at-bat. "I happened to do it and it fell in for a double."

Winker's double landed in the right-field corner to score Taylor and move Baldwin to third, who scored on the next hit: a single from Devin Shines to cut the lead to one. A pop-out ended the inning, but the Loons found more chances in the following frames. Noel Cuevas led off the eighth with a single, but was called out when stealing second on a batter's interference, Justin Boudreaux the offender after having struck out. Vazquez hit a single to center field before the inning ended, which may have been enough to score Cuevas from second.

In the ninth the Loons had another leadoff batter, Jesus Arredondo, single to get on base. He made it around to third on a wild pitch and a Baldwin sac-bunt, but the two shallow outs that followed secured the win for the Cougars. The Loons collected 14 hits in the game, with Arredondo, Shines, Bosnik and Vazquez turning in multi-hit performances.

"We've got guys up there battling and getting hits," Winker said after the game. "If we just keep doing that, they're going to string together and we're going to get some runs. We've just got to keep doing it."

The Cougars used three singles and three walks to jump out to a three-run lead in the first inning, sending all nine batters to the plate. After the first, Loons pitcher Matt Laney cruised through six more innings and was relieved by Juan Noriega in the eighth. Noriega finished with two hitless frames, keeping his ERA at 0.00 for the year (14.0 innings). Laney was charged with the loss, his second, while Kane County's Kellen Moen was awarded the win for five innings of work.

The Loons will host game two of their three-game series against the Kane County Cougars Sunday at 2:05 p.m. RHP Gustavo Gomez (2-1, 5.40) will get the start for the Loons against Kane County's RHP Brooks Pounders (0-0, 4.76). Following the Family Fun in the SUNday, kids will have the opportunity to run the bases, presented by the Farm Bureau Insurance.

The Great Lakes Loons are a sixth-year Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and are in the middle of their 5th Anniversary Celebration, which kicked off in August 2011 and will continue throughout the 2012 season. For more information about the Loons, visit Loons.com or call 989-837-BALL.

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Midwest League Stories from April 28, 2012


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