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MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Yankees Put Up Five Run First; Beat Dayton 7-3

September 5, 2004 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Battle Creek, MI– With the Midwest League confused on who would be where in the event of a three way tie for first in the Eastern Division, the Battle Creek Yankees (38-31, 71-67) figured the best thing to do was to beat the Dayton Dragons (20-49, 47-92) and put the pressure on Fort Wayne and West Michigan. The Yankees did what they wanted, riding a five run first inning to a 7-3 win over the Dragons Sunday afternoon at C.O. Brown Stadium.

The Dragons looked to play spoiler picking up back-to-back one out doubles off Jason Jones (W, 3-1) in the top half of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead over the Yankees. Luis Bolivar hammered a Jones pitch to dead center, one hopping the wall at 402 and cruising into scoring position for Ben Himes. Himes, in the line up for the first time since September 1st, doubled into the left field corner picking up his 45th RBI of the season.

Joe Wilson (L, 0-4) could not make the lead stand up as Battle Creek sent eight men to the plate, picking up five runs on four hits and three Wilson walks. Nick Walsh led off the Yankee first with a double and would score from second on Hector Made's RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. With one down and the bases loaded, Wilson walked Jason Van Meetren forcing home the go ahead run for a 2-1 lead. A Willie Vasquez RBI single made it 3-1. Erold Andrus scored from third on a balk by Wilson that stretched the lead to 4-0. Tommy Rojas knocked in the final run of the inning on a SAC fly off the bat of Tommy Rojas to take a 5-1 after the first inning.

Jones settled down and was tough against the Dragons the rest of the way lasting through 7.0 innings. After the two hit first, Dayton could only manage six hits, all singles. Jones struck out six and did not walk a batter picking up his second win over the Dragons in five days to improve to 3-1 on the year.

The Dayton bullpen did a great job; keeping the Yankees within reach but the Dragons could never get anything going against Jones. Robbie Wachman (ND) surrendered a solo homer to Vasquez to give Battle Creek a 7-1 lead. That would be all that Wachman would allow in his 3.0 innings of work. Damian Ursin replaced Wachman in the seventh and threw 2.0 innings of shutout baseball of his own, in his final appearance of the season.

Dayton got two runs late in the top of the eighth inning, picking up a two run home run from Bolivar, who took a Randy Vanderplow (ND) deep to left center for a two run home run. It was Bolivar's 11th on the season and his 48th and 49th RBI. Heath Castle got the Dragons out one, two, three, in the ninth to preserve the win for Jones.

The Dragons and Yankees wrap up the four game series and the 2004 regular season at C.O. Brown Stadium Monday afternoon with the third game of the series. ESPN Radio 1410 Wing AM will carry the game live beginning with the pre game show at 1:30 PM. The first pitch on Monday is scheduled for 2:00 PM. RHP Justin Mallett will get the start for Dayton, while Battle Creek is scheduled to send RHP Josh Smith to the mound.

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Midwest League Stories from September 5, 2004


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