Dragons score four in 7th, rally past Lugs

DAYTON, OH – The Dayton Dragons (28-27) rallied from 3-0 and 5-3 deficits to best the Lansing Lugnuts (28-27) for a third straight game, 7-5, on Friday night at Day Air Ballpark.

Lugnuts catcher Cole Conn slugged a three-run homer in the loss, which dropped Lansing four games out of first place in the East Division with 11 games remaining in the first half.

The switch-hitting Conn had hit a three-run homer from the left side of the plate in Tuesday’s series-opening win. On Friday, he broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a drive from the right side into the Dragon’s Lair in left.

But in the bottom of the fifth inning, Jay Allen II concluded a battle of an at-bat with a two-run homer to left-center off starter Grant Judkins. Two batters later, Sal Stewart homered to left off reliever Garrett Irvin to tie the game at 3-3.

The Nuts responded quickly, taking a two-run lead in the sixth on a Casey Yamauchi RBI single and Henry Bolte sacrifice fly.

But the Dragons tallied four runs off Jake Garland in the bottom of the seventh, aided by a pair of errors committed by first baseman Will Simpson, to take their first lead of the game.

Joseph Menefee blanked the Lugnuts in the eighth and John Murphy pitched around a two-out single from Euribiel Ángeles in the ninth to secure the win.

Both Ángeles and second baseman Colby Halter finished with a pair of hits in defeat.

Right-hander Mitch Myers gets the ball for Lansing on Saturday at 7:05 p.m., taking on Dayton right-hander Jose Franco.

The Nuts play Dayton through Sunday, returning home June 11-16 for a six-game series with Cedar Rapids. For tickets and further information, visit milb.com/lansing or call (517) 485-4500.

# # #