Loons defeat Captains, 6-5

Happy Birthday to Joe! 

Winker provides winning punch on special day 

MIDLAND, MI – The Great Lakes Loons (29-35, 63-71) celebrated the birthday of teammate Joe Winker by rallying in the eighth to defeat the Lake County Captains (35-29, 66-67) by the score of 6-5 on Tuesday night at Dow Diamond in front of 3, 815 fans.

The birthday boy thought his gift came in the sixth game when he hit a home run off of Captains reliever Cody Penny that pulled the Loons to within one. But the real birthday magic came in the eighth when his RBI-double to left-center field tied the game at 5-5 and the following double scored him as the winning run.

“I don’t really ever remember playing on my birthday,” Winker said of the night. “I think I had the day off last year, so yeah, it was cool [tonight]. I talked to my parents beforehand and I just said ‘I’m going to try and have a good game.’ You never know if you’re going to or not, but it was really nice having a good game.”

Mimicking Winker’s performance was third baseman Jeff Hunt, who connected for a home run in the seventh to make it 5-4 and hit the double that scored Winker in the eighth. While both men shared the same stat line with two hits, two runs and two RBI; Hunt will not celebrate his birthday until February 13.

The win gives the Loons the 3-1 series victory over Lake County. Picking up the win from the hill and making his Loons debut appearance was Geoff Brown. The lefty limited Lake County to one run on four hits through 2.1 innings of work. Danny Coulombe pitched a spotless 0.2 inning for his first save.

The Loons scored first on Hunt’s two-out double to left field, scoring catcher Michael Pericht from first, just beating out the throw to the plate. James Baldwin followed with a single that he tried to stretch for a double, which the Captains thwarted, but not before Hunt scored for the second run of the inning.

The Captains took their first lead in the fourth inning on a three-run homer from Alex Lavisky
and hit another off Loons starter Raydel Sanchez in the fourth. Sanchez allowed another home run in the fifth to give the Captains a 4-2 advantage before ending his night. Lake County added one more in the seventh on a sac-fly.

The Great Lakes Loons will hit the road for a final time Wednesday, before returning to Dow Diamond on Saturday, September 1. The Saturday game will be followed by a Fireworks Loontacular, powered by Dow Corning