Lugnuts whiff 15, but fall short to Loons

LANSING, Mich. – Three Lansing Lugnuts (18-20) struck out 15 Great Lakes Loons (19-19) batters and Shane Selman swatted a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, but the Lugnuts fell short, 6-4, on Wednesday night at Jackson® Field™.

Seth Shuman struck out eight in five innings, Bryce Nightengale fanned six in three innings – two in each frame – and Brandon Withers whiffed a batter in the ninth, but the Loons’ offense countered with two runs in the third, one in the fourth, one in the fifth, one in the seventh and one in the ninth to gain enough breathing space for the victory.

Half of those runs were unearned, due to a trio of Lugnuts errors.

For seven innings, though, it seemed as if one run would be plenty for Great Lakes, with starter Logan Boyer tossing a perfect first inning and José Martínez following with six innings of one-hit, one-walk, three-strikeout baseball.

But the Lugnuts broke the shutout on consecutive singles by William Simoneit, Selman and Ryan Gridley and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Max Schuemann against Zack Plunkett in the eighth, drawing within 5-1 before Jeff Belge quashed the threat with a strikeout of Drew Millas.

In the ninth, Belge walked Cobie Vance and gave up a double to Jordan Díaz before striking out Simoneit looking. That brought up Selman, who drilled the first pitch he received to The View in left-center, over 420 feet away, for his fifth home run of the season.

Elvis Peralta, Jr. reached on an infield single to bring Gridley up as the game-tying run, but Belge induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

In the loss, starter Shuman allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings while Selman and Díaz each recorded two-hit nights. Millas went 0-for-3 with a walk to extend his on-base streak to 19 games.

On Thursday night, a Labatt Blue Thirsty Thursday with $2 domestics and $4 craft drafts, the Lansing Locos take the field in celebration of Copa de la Diversión on the night that longtime Lansing coach Javier Cavazos is inducted into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame. Right-hander Richard Guasch (1.85 ERA) starts for the Lugnuts against Loons right-hander Bobby Miller (1.00). To purchase tickets, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.

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