Lugnuts crush three homers in 13-9 loss

LANSING, MI – Austin Beck walked, doubled twice and walloped one of three Lansing Lugnuts home runs, but the Lugnuts (30-34) gave up 12 runs in the final three innings in a 13-9 loss to the Lake County Captains (35-29) on Friday night at Jackson® Field™.

The early story was the Lugnuts’ power. Shane Selman extended his on-base streak to 18 games with a leadoff home run in the first inning, his team-leading ninth homer of the year, and Beck delivered an RBI double in a two-run third and a two-run double in a four-run fourth inning to help the Nuts build a 7-1 lead behind starter Reid Birlingmair.

Birlingmair exited after five innings, with Brock Whittlesey blanking the Captains in the sixth. In the seventh, however, Lake County erupted for six game-tying runs against Whittlesey, the debuting José Mora and Charles Hall, keyed by a two-run triple from Victor Nova.

Jordan Díaz answered in the bottom of the seventh with a 420-foot home run, his seventh roundtripper of the season, pushing the Lugnuts back into the lead at 8-7.

But the Captains came right back in the eighth, taking their first lead of the night on a Bryan Lavastida two-out, two-run double off Hall.

After Lake County added four insurance runs in the ninth against Brandon Withers, Beck led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a booming 424-foot home run off Kevin Kelly, his third hit of the game. Díaz followed with his third hit, a single, before Kelly set down the next three batters to wrap up the Captains’ win.

In its three wins in the series, Lake County has scored 38 runs on 43 hits – compared to its lone loss, a five-hit shutout on Thursday night.

With the fifth game of the series comes a Wizarding Weekend, featuring a Beater Bat Giveaway, butter beer, and more! Lansing right-hander Colin Peluse (4.44 ERA) face Captains right-hander Hunter Gaddis (5.02 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.

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