South Bend Strikes for 11 Runs, Again

South Bend, IN – The Cubs won their 10th game in their last 11 on Saturday, as they withstood a late surge from the TinCaps in front of a crowd of 5,181 on Star Wars Night.

After four innings of play South Bend led 8-0, capping a stretch of 19 unanswered runs scored by the Cubs going back to the first inning on Friday night. Fort Wayne quickly rallied with a five-spot in the fifth and two more in the seventh to bring the game within a run. But Jeremiah Estrada tossed the last two frames scoreless, earning his team-high fifth save of the season, and the Cubs pushed across three insurance runs in the eighth and ninth.

Yohendrick Pinango kickstarted the offense with a solo homer in the first inning, his third homer in his last three at-bats, and part of a span where he tallied the last eight RBIs between the two sides.

D.J. Herz got the starting nod for South Bend and made it into the fifth inning for the first time this year, tossing the first four in scoreless and hitless fashion.

Then the Cubs blew the doors open.

South Bend batted around in the third inning. Pablo Aliendo and Cole Roederer singled to start, and Bradlee Beesley walked to load the bases for Pinango. He looped a single into shallow center to double the lead. Two batters later Jake Slaughter hit a slow roller to the right side and a diving play by the second baseman Ripken Reyes kept the ball on the infield but it went as another run-scoring single. Owen Caissie singled up the middle on a sharp groundball to score Pinango and with Caissie later picked off first and caught in a rundown, Slaughter swiped home on a bang-bang play at the plate.

With the Cubs up 6-0 they tacked on two more the next inning on a two-out Matt Mervis double down the line in right.

At 8-to-nil and the way the Cubs had been hitting, let alone the dominance showcased by Herz in the first four frames, the game seemed out of reach. However, Fort Wayne didn’t get that message.

Two walks and a single to started the fifth and bounced Herz from the game, bringing in Walker Powell for his high-A debut. Four singles later the TinCaps had sent 10 to the plate in the inning and trimmed the lead to 8-5.

Two innings later Robert Hassell III, who had been 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, ripped a single that proved to be the catalyst for a two-run rally. With two down and Powell still toeing the rubber, Jarryd Dale stroked a double down the left field line, scoring two, and bring the TinCaps within a run.

Clinging to a one run lead after once leading by eight the Cubs needed some offense. But it was Fort Wayne that gifted the Cubs two insurance runs in the seventh. With two outs and no one on Slaughter walked, then reached second on a wild pitch from Seth Mayberry. Caissie hit another sharp grounder to first that went through the legs of Olivier Basabe and Slaughter scored to give South Bend a two-run lead. Then Pertuz sent a towering fly ball to right field that banged off the wall, scored Caissie, and just like that the Cubs led 10-7.

The final run of the night came when Aliendo launched a no-doubt homer to left to start the eighth, his first homer with the South Bend Cubs.

South Bend put up 11 runs for the second consecutive ballgame and locked up their third series victory in a row at home. The Cubs haven’t trailed in this series in the last 20 innings.

Game six of the series and the final game of this twelve game homestand is set for tomorrow afternoon at 2:05.