Lugs' power enough to hold off Caps, 7-6

LANSING, MI – Austin Beck homered for the second straight day, Cobie Vance popped his first roundtripper of the season and Michael Guldberg delivered a valuable three-run blast late, powering the Lansing Lugnuts (31-34) to a 7-6 victory over the Lake County Captains (35-30) on Saturday night at Jackson® Field™.

It was the second straight day for the Lugnuts with three home runs against Lake County.

On the heels of homering in his final at-bat on Thursday night, Beck smashed a two-run homer in his first at-bat against Lake County starter Hunter Gaddis, giving the Lugnuts a 2-1 lead in the first inning.

Lake County tied the score in the third, only to see Vance drive his first home run since April 17, 2019, in the bottom half of the inning, pushing the Nuts back into the lead. Jordan Díaz added an RBI single three batters later for a 4-2 advantage.

Four innings later, Guldberg flexed his muscles with his fourth home run of the year, increasing the Lugnuts’ lead to 7-3.

The insurance proved necessary when Bryan Lavastida drilled an RBI double and José Tena followed with a two-run single in the ninth against Lugnuts lefty Dalton Sawyer, trimming the lead to one run. With the tying run aboard, Sawyer struck out both Joe Naranjo and Raynel Delgado to end the game.

Nuts starter Colin Peluse turned in another fine performance, allowing two runs (one earned) in five innings, striking out five. Leudeny Pineda pitched the sixth and seventh innings, allowing a solo home run to George Valera, before turning the ball over to Sawyer for the final six outs.

Vance finished 2-for-4 with three runs scored while Guldberg went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Left fielder Shane Selman, on the other hand, went 0-for-4, ending his on-base streak at 18 games.

The Lugnuts have allowed 38 runs in their three losses to Lake County in the six-game series, but would split the series with a win on Sunday in the finale. The first 500 fans in attendance will receive a Beater Bat as Wizarding Weekend continues on a Capital City Market Kids Day, with Kids Run the Bases after the game. First pitch is at 1:05 p.m. between Lansing lefty David Leal (8.20 ERA) and Captains right-hander Mason Hickman (3.04 ERA). To purchase tickets, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.

# # #