Lugnuts walk all over Dayton, 11-4

LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts (8-9) drew eight walks, including five straight from reliever Pedro Alfonseca in a five-run eighth inning, and rode monster nights from Colby Halter, Henry Bolte, Will Simpson and Brayan Buelvas to an 11-4 rout of the Dayton Dragons (7-10) on Wednesday night at at Jackson® Field™.

Leadoff hitter Halter doubled, walked, and scored three runs; No. 2 hitter Bolte singled twice, doubled, walked and scored four runs; No. 3 hitter Simpson singled twice, doubled and knocked in three runs; and No. 4 hitter Buelvas singled, doubled twice, and drove in five runs to lead the offense. All told, the quartet combined for eight runs, 10 of the team’s 11 hits, five doubles, and 10 RBIs.

In contrast, Dayton’s offense was held to three hits by starter Luis Carrasco (five innings) and relievers Jose Dicochea (two innings), Garrett Irvin (one inning) and Colton Johnson (one inning) – and two of those three hits came in a three-batter span to open the game.

But after Carlos Jorge and Sal Stewart singled in the top of the first inning and Cam Collier gave the Dragons a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly, the Lugnuts answered against Johnathan Harmon in the home half on consecutive doubles from Bolte and Simpson and an RBI single from Buelvas, grabbing a 2-1 lead.

Bolte singled, stole second and scored on a Simpson single in the third inning to increase the lead to 3-1.

Facing reliever Easton Sikorski in the fifth, Halter doubled and Simpson singled him home for a 4-1 lead.

Dayton tallied twice via two walks and an error in the seventh against Dicochea, but the Lugnuts rebuilt their lead to 6-3 on a Colby Halter/Dereck Salom double steal – Salom swiping home – and a Buelvas RBI double.

In the eighth, the Dragons crept within 6-4 on a Ruben Ibarra sacrifice fly against Irvin. Alfonseca then opened the bottom of the eighth with consecutive walks to Jose Escorche, CJ Rodriguez, Salom, Halter and Bolte. New reliever John Murphy struck out Simpson, but Buelvas followed with a bases-clearing double to the wall in left to put the game away.

The Lugnuts lead the Midwest League with 88 walks drawn, averaging over five per game.

Thursday is Draft Night… a Coors Light Thirsty Thursday Draft Night with $3 domestic drafts and $5 craft drafts! Lansing right-hander Wander Guante takes on Dayton right-hander Kevin Abel at 6:05 p.m. Tickets are available for purchaseat the Jackson® Field™ box office, available for purchase at (517) 485-4500 or online at milb.com/lansing.

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