| April 14, 2004 - Dayton--All good things must eventually come to
an end and so was the case for the Lansing Lugnuts' winning streak,
snapped Wednesday night at five games when they spilt a doubleheader with
the Dayton Dragons, winning the opener 4-3 and dropping the finale by a
4-3 count as well.
In the opener, the home standing Dragons scored three times in the
first inning off Randy Wells to take a 3-0 lead. Joey Votto walked with
two outs, Kyle Smith homered to left and a pair of doubles aided the
cause.
Lansing battled back, however. In the fifth, Alfredo Francisco and
Carlos Rojas singled to lead off the inning and Francisco came in on a
sacfly by Tony McQuade. The Lugnuts tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth.
Kevin Collins led off with a long solo homer to center to cut the lead to
3-2. With one out, Jake Fox was hit by a pitch by Dragons reliever Carlos
Guevara. Alan Rick singled to send Fox to second and Francisco's fly out
to center put runners at the corners for Carlos Rojas. Rojas promptly
singled to right, scoring Fox.
That set the stage for McQuade in the top of the seventh. The Lugnut
right fielder led off with a solo homer of his own, his first of the year
to send Lansing into the lead. The Dragons threatened in their half of the
seventh, but Adalberto Mendez closed the door for his fourth save. Juan
Mateo(1-0) got the win while Guevara (0-1) took the loss.
In the second game, it was the Lugnuts jumping out to the three-run
lead. Lansing scored single runs in the first, second and third innings.
Wild pitches by Dragons starter Jon George scored Ryan Fitzgerald and
Robinson Chirinos and Kyle Boyer hit his first homer of the year in the
second. After the third, it was all Dayton, however.
Dayton tied the game with a three-run fourth frame off Lugnut starter Sean
Marshall. With one out, Joey Votto and Kyle Smith collected
back to back hits and a fielders choice RBI by Ben Himes got Dayton within
a pair at 3-1. On the first pitch he saw from Marshall,
Ryan Fry tied the score with a two-run dinger to left center. The Dragons
won it in the last of the seventh as Luis Bolivar's double scored Will
Hudson with the game winner.
The two teams will wrap up the four-game series on Thursday night when
righty Ronald Bay goes for Lansing against righty Brock Till at 7:00 p.m.
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