Lake County Takes Final First-Half Game 3-1
South Bend, IN - In arguably one of the best pitched games of the year for the South Bend Cubs, the Lake County Captains put up three runs in the top of the 2nd inning, and that was enough to win the game. Erian Rodriguez made his Midwest League debut
South Bend, IN - In arguably one of the best pitched games of the year for the South Bend Cubs, the Lake County Captains put up three runs in the top of the 2nd inning, and that was enough to win the game. Erian Rodriguez made his Midwest League debut on the mound, and struck out a career-high seven batters. Aaron Perry added six strikeouts, and Jose Romero punched out one more, but the Cubs fell to the Captains 3-1 to conclude the first half.
Tomorrow night, when the two clubs get together again for Game 4 of the series, the records will reset and it will be a fresh 0-0 for all parties in the Midwest League. In both of South Bend’s championship runs of 2019 and 2022, they entered the playoffs as a second half postseason team.
Lake County, the fist-half champion in the East Division, plated three runs against Rodriguez in the 2nd. They came on three singles, one of them a bunt, a hit-by-pitch, and two walks. From there, the tall right-hander Rodriguez locked in. He would go on to throw five full innings, and his final three frames of the night were perfect.
The career high of seven strikeouts gave Rodriguez is more than solid outing in his first High-A appearance, but he took the loss.
Aaron Perry picked up right where Rodriguez left off with three scoreless of his own. In the 7th, Perry walked the first two men who came up, and eventually, they made it to second and third base. Perry then punched out the next three straight that came up to hang a zero.
South Bend got their lone tally courtesy of an RBI single from Rafael Morel in the 4th. Felix Stevens came around to score. Also with a base hit tonight, Parker Chavers stretched his consecutive games on-base streak 20 games in a row.
Jose Romero tossed a shutout 9th to give the Cubs a chance to come back, but Lake County closed out the final three outs to take their third consecutive win of the week.
The second half begins Friday, and it’ll be a 7:05 PM first pitch at Four Winds Field in the start of the dash to September. Right-hander Trenton Denholm goes for Lake County, while lefty Drew Gray is the starter for South Bend.