Buelvas' ninth-inning double rallies Lugs to 6-5 win

EASTLAKE, OH – The Lansing Lugnuts (8-11, 40-44) turned around a 4-o deficit against the Midwest League’s winningest pitcher before beating the league’s top closer in the ninth, stunning the Lake County Captains (10-8, 51-33), 6-5, on Brayan Buelvas’ go-ahead two-run double on Friday evening at Classic Auto Group Park.

The Lugnuts improved to 10-6 against Lake County, winning their second straight game in the series; the Captains are 45-23 against the rest of the Midwest League.

Caps ace Trenton Denholm entered the game with an 8-2 record, tops in the league in wins in addition to working the most innings in the league and ranking third in the MWL in WHIP, and he held Lansing hitless while his teammates built a 4-0 lead against Will Johnston with a run in the third inning and three in the fourth.

But in the fifth inning, Cole Conn and Jose Escorche followed a walk to Cameron Masterman with consecutive singles, Escorche driving in Masterman to bring the Nuts within 4-1.

An inning later, Brayan Buelvas coaxed a one-out walk, Sahid Valenzuelaserved a two-out RBI single to right, and Masterman followed with a two-run homer to left-center, knotting the score at 4-4. Coincidentally, it was the sixth consecutive game that Lansing has hit a home run in the sixth inning.

Blaze Pontes blanked Lake County from the fifth through the seventh innings, but Jorge Burgos doubled past left fielder Masterman in the eighth to bring in Cooper Ingle for a 5-4 Captains lead.

Magnus Ellerts, the league’s leader with ten saves, had stranded a pair of inherited runners in a scoreless eighth inning. In the ninth, however, after retiring Jonny Butler on a flyout, Ellerts walked Danny Bautista, Jr. and gave up a laser of a single to Will Simpson. Bautista, Jr. swiped third, allowing him to trot home with the game-tying run when Buelvas drilled a 3-2 Ellerts slider off the wall in right-center. Simpson attempted to score as well, and the relay throw home one-hopped beyond catcher Ingle, allowing him to slap the plate with the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the ninth, Luis Carrasco recorded his first professional save, striking out Burgos with the potential tying and winning runs aboard, thereby securing the first professional victory for Pontes.

In a no-decision, Nuts starter Johnston fanned seven batters in four innings.

Lansing looks for a third straight win in the series at 7 p.m. Saturday, sending right-hander Jake Garland against Lake County strikeout ace Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson.

The Lugnuts next return home following the Major League All-Star Break, opening a three-game series with Great Lakes from July 19-21. For tickets and further information, visit milb.com/lansing or call (517) 485-4500.

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