MWL Lake County Captains

Valera's Two Blasts Carry Captains

August 4, 2021 - Midwest League (MWL)
Lake County Captains News Release


(Eastlake, OH) - George Valera's first career two-home run game propelled the Lake County Captains (43-37) to an 8-4 win over the Lansing Lugnuts (38-42) on Wednesday night at Classic Park.

The Captains rallied with two outs in the bottom of the first to strike first. Micah Pries reached on an infield single to extend the inning. A Valera walk put runners on first and second for Joe Naranjo. He worked a deep at bat, finally doubling down the right field line on the eighth pitch to drive in Pries and Valera. Next up was Victor Nova and he replicated Naranjo's double with one of his own down the left field line to plate Naranjo and give the Captains a 3-0 lead after the first inning.

In the top of the third inning Lansing got on the scoreboard with two runs. Patrick McColl doubled with one out. After a pop out to first base William Simoneit drove a home run to right field to bring Lansing within one run, trailing Lake County 3-2.

Valera blasted a two-run homer in the fifth to extend the Captains' lead in the bottom of the fifth. After Pries extended the inning with a two-out single down the left field line, Valera launched a fly ball over the left-center field wall to give Lake County a 5-2 lead.

The Lugnuts again cut the Captains lead to one run in the top of the eighth. With one out Cobie Vance hooked a double down the right field line. That brought McColl up and he lifted an opposite field home run to right field to make the score 5-4, Captains.

Valera led off the bottom of the eighth for the Captains with his second bomb of the night. This one was crunched to right-center off the Classic Park video board to stretch Lake County's lead to 6-4. With one out Nova and

Raynel Delgado both walked to put two on. Joe Donovan was up next and rolled a bouncing ball up the third base line. The Lansing third baseman Jordan Diaz threw errantly to first after fielding the ball in his bare hand. Donovan was awarded an infield single, but the error allowed both Nova and Delgado to score and make the Captains lead 8-4.

Kevin Coulter (6-3) earned the win with five strong innings on the mound. He allowed two runs on five hits with two walks and a strikeout.

Jorge Juan (0-1) took the loss in his High-A debut for Lansing. He allowed three runs on three hits while issuing three walks and striking out three.

Jerson Ramirez (6) earned the save with a scoreless 1.1 to close the game for Lake County. He struck out one Lugnut to hold on in the Captains win.

Tanner Burns takes the ball for the Captains on Thursday for game three of the six-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m at Classic Park.

Check out the Lake County Captains Statistics



Midwest League Stories from August 4, 2021


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