Lugnuts walk over Dragons, 8-2

LANSING, Mich. - Edward Olivares homered, J.B. Woodman went 3-for-5, and the Lansing Lugnuts (31-24) cruised to an 8-2 victory over the Dayton Dragons (36-21) on Tuesday night at Cooley Law School Stadium.

With the second-place Dragons falling and a loss by first-place West Michigan earlier in the day, the Lugnuts pulled within four games of the Eastern Division wild card and six games of the division leaders.

Olivares's seventh home run of the season, a second-inning blast, was the first of six runs scored off Dayton starter Wennington Romero(Loss, 3-2) in three innings-plus.

The Lugnuts followed up with two runs in the third inning, four runs in the fourth and one more run in the fifth inning. Neither team scored from the sixth inning onward.

The run support backed the effort of starter Mike Ellenbest (Win, 3-4), who pitched six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and four walks, and striking out four.

Tayler Saucedo pitched the seventh and eighth innings scorelessly, and Connor Eller recorded a perfect ninth in his Midwest League debut.

The Lugnuts' offense was led by Woodman, who cracked two doubles and stole two bases, and second baseman Yeltsin Gudino , who went 2-for-3 with two singles, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored.

Bo Bichette was 1-for-4 with a walk and a two-run double, extending his hitting streak to 15 games.

Lansing right-hander Andy Ravel (4-1, 7.40) takes on Dayton left-hander Ty Boyles (1-0, 2.75) on a Winning Wednesday in the second game of the three-game series, with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. If the Lugnuts win, here's a guarantee: Tickets may be exchanged for tickets of equal or lesser value to a future Lugnuts game in 2017!

Tickets may be purchased at the Cooley Law School Stadium box office, by calling (517) 485-4500 or via lansinglugnuts.com.
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