Loons over Lugnuts 9-8 in 10th

Great Lakes Loons scores nine two-out runs

MIDLAND, MI – The Great Lakes Loons (25-34, 59-70) outlasted the Lansing Lugnuts (30-27, 77-49) in Thursday night’s slugfest at Dow Diamond, delivering the knock-out punch in the bottom of the 10th inning for the 9-8 victory. A total of 5,215 fans were in attendance for the game, marking the Loons 10th sell-out of the year.

Trailing 8-7 in the ninth and facing their last out, the Loons tied the game on a wild pitch delivered by Lansing’s Ajay Meyer, which sent the home team into their 12th extra-inning game of the season.

In the bottom of the 10th, center fielder James Baldwin walked to get on base and Darnell Sweeney fought down a pitch high up in the zone for a sac-bunt that moved Baldwin to second. Then with two outs, Joe Winker sliced a grounder past the pitcher’s mound that was gloved by shortstop Shane Opitz and arrived safely at first, meanwhile Baldwin was coming in to score the game winner.

“As soon as Winker hit the ball I was thinking about going because we had two outs,” Baldwin said after the game. “He got the ball in play so my job is to run as fast as I can because you never know what could happen. As soon as I was rounding third base and I saw the ump call him safe, I was like, ‘it’s a 50-50 chance.’ So I was running full speed and didn’t hesitate, kept going, and at the end of the game we won.”

Lansing matched the Loons blow for blow throughout the night, causing seven different lead changes before the Loons had the last laugh. The Loons crafted a pair of three-run innings with one in the third and another in the fifth. The two-out rally in the third finished on a run-scoring double steal from Jesse Bosnik and Scott Schebler on the corners. All nine of the Loons runs came with two outs.

Picking up the win for the Loons was reliever Daniel Carela, who recorded only one out in his Dow Diamond debut: a strikeout to escape the 10th inning. Raydel Sanchez started for the Loons and surrendered six runs, five earned, on five hits over four innings. Matt Shelton allowed two more runs before James Campbell and Danny Coulombe combined for four shutout innings.

The Great Lakes Loons will look for the series win against the Lugnuts on Friday night at Dow Diamond. Getting the start for the Loons is RHP Gustavo Gomez (7-8, 5.78) vs. Lansing’s RHP Blake McFarland (5-4, 5.29). Following the game, 20 contestants will make a mad dash for cash in the Loons Raining Monday promotion presented by Chemical Bank. A helicopter will drop $2,000 onto the field for the contestants to collect.