Loons drop to Captains, 4-3

Heartbreaker Snaps Loons Streak
Hershiser makes Midwest League debut in loss

MIDLAND, MI – The Great Lakes Loons (28-35, 62-71) were set up for their fifth win in a row Monday night at Dow Diamond, but the Lake County Captains (35-28, 66-66) rallied with two outs in the ninth inning to defeat the home team 4-3 in front of 3,822 fans.

Center fielder James Baldwin connected for his seventh home run of the season in the eighth inning to give the Loons a late 3-2 lead; but three outs from victory, Loons reliever Daniel Carela offered two walks to the Captains and Jose Ramirez’s two-out double to the left-field bullpen scored the pair. The two runs were the first allowed by Carela as a Loon after 3.1 spotless innings in four previous appearances with the club.

In the bottom of the ninth, O’Koyea Dickson gave the Loons a chance to tie the game with a one-out double to left field. Jesse Bosnik entered as a pinch runner and moved 90 feet closer on a groundout before the game ended on Scott Schebler’s fly ball.

After a quality start from reliever Joel Lima, who made a spot start for Arismendy Ozoria and held the Captains to two runs through six innings, Jordan Hershiser made his Loons debut. The 6’8” Texan faced eight batters and allowed two hits in two innings of work.

“I feel like I got lucky,” he said about his performance, only hours after arriving in Midland. “I didn’t feel like I had really good stuff out there, but I was able to execute enough where the [batters] kind of got themselves out.”

Hershiser induced four groundouts and two pop flies. He was in line for the win, but instead Carela was handed his first loss.

Right fielder Joe Winker helped the Loons to an early 2-0 lead with a home run to right field in the first inning. The jack to right field, his ninth, scored Jesus Arredondo, who worked an infield single before Winker’s at-bat. The Captains tied it up with a Jordan Smith homer in the sixth inning.

The Great Lakes Loons will conclude their four-game series with the Lake County Captains, the Midwest League affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, Tuesday at Dow Diamond. The Loons send RHP Raydel Sanchez (3-8, 4.71) to the hill against Lake County’s LHP Elvis Araujo (7-9, 4.90). The Loons will celebrate the arts on Tuesday with Salute to the Arts Night, presented by Midland Center for the Arts.