Loons Drop games on Sunday at Dow Diamond and Monday in Dayton, Ohio:

Sunday May, 18 and Monday May, 19 Great Lakes Loons starting pitchers, Zach Bird & Luis Depaula combined to give up 17-hits and 11-runs through 5-and-4 innings respectively.  Bird’s 5-4 loss Sunday evening at Dow Diamond split a four-game series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods (20-23), single-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays; while Depaula’s 7-3 loss against the MWL eastern conference second place team, the Dayton Dragons (25-17), a single-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, was a bad start to the first game- of a- three game road trip. 

 

Sunday, Bird (2-6, 4.86 ERA) gave up two runs in the first inning, an unearned run in the second, one run in the third, and finally a run in his fifth and final inning; which proved to be the game winning fifth run, as the visiting Bowling Green Hot Rods defeated the Loons 5-4 in front of 2,238 fans at Dow Diamond. Great Lakes second baseman, Jesmuel Valentin (son of former Major-Leaguer, Jose Valentin) led the Loons offensively, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored the Loons fourth run of the game after a two-out triple in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Great Lakes left fielder, Jacob Scavuzzo was also 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Loons on Sunday.

 

Monday evening, DePaula (1-1, 6.62 ERA) gave up a two-run home run to Dayton first baseman, Elizalde Sabastian in the first inning to give the Dragons an early 2-0 lead.  DePaula would go on to give up four more runs in the fourth, for a total of 6-runs off of 8-hits through four innings of work.  The Loons ultimately lost 7-3 in the first game- of this- three game road series with the MWL eastern division second place, Dayton Dragons in front of 7,801 fans at Fifth Third Ball Park in downtown Dayton, Ohio Monday afternoon.  Jesmuel Valentin would lead the Loons offense again, going 2-for-4 while scoring a run, and hitting his second triple in as many games.

 

The Loons play two more games in Dayton on Tue and Wed, before returning to Dow Diamond for a three-game home stand against the South Bend Silverhawks (27-18), affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.