Lugnuts come on late over Whitecaps
May 25, 2004 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Lansing Lugnuts News Release
LANSING â In a game that featured 12 extra-base hits, West Michigan had more hits and more extra-base knocks but left 12 runners stranded while the Lugnuts came on late in the 8-4 win Monday night at Olds Park.
The Whitecaps (17-26) got the hitting going in the second inning with a pair of doubles by Kelly Hunt, who scored on Kody Kirkland's two-base hit. The Lugnuts (26-18) matched the run in the bottom half as Kevin Collins ripped his first triple off the right field wall before scoring on Jake Fox's groundout.
West Michigan took the lead in the fourth on Garth McKinney's solo homerun to left field, but Lansing's bats came alive in the sixth to get back on top. Chris Walker dropped a bunt single and went to second on a balk. He then stole third before Carlos Rojas drove him in with a base hit. Collins then crushed a two-run homerun to deep right, his league-leading 12th homer of the season, for the 4-2 lead.
The Whitecaps added a run in the seventh off of back-to-back doubles but the Lugnuts had bigger ideas in the eighth. Rojas and Brian Dopirak walked to start the inning and Fox singled to left to load the bases. Alan Rick followed with a base-clearing triple to the right-centerfield gap, and scored on a passed ball as Lansing went up by five.
West Michigan tried to rally in the ninth but came up with only one run before stranding two runners as Lansing's Adalberto Mendez struck out the last two batters for his league-leading 13th save. For the game the Whitecaps left two runners stranded three times and the bases loaded once.
Lugnuts' starter Ronald Bay (4-3) picked up the win throwing 6.0 innings and allowing 2 earned runs on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts. Virgil Vasquez (4-3) got the loss for West Michigan allowing 4 earned runs on 5 hits in 5.2 innings.
Lansing and West Michigan square off again Tuesday night, as the Cubs' Mark Prior returns to pitch for the Lugnuts against the Whitecaps' Brian Rogers. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
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