Loons drop series opener with 4-2 loss to West Michigan Whitecaps

 

The Great Lakes Loons (38-69) dropped the opener of a 3-game home series with a 4-2 loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps (Detroit Tigers) at Dow Diamond tonight.

 

The Loons had jumped out to an early lead when shortstop Deacon Liput laced a 1-out triple into the left-center field power gap, before he was driven in on a sac fly RBI off the bat of Loons LF Drew Avans for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

 

West Michigan answered in the second when third baseman Colby Bortles (younger brother of NFL QB Blake Bortles) led off the inning with a single, then was driven in on an RBI-single by Whitecaps catcher Chris Proctor to tie the game at 1-run apiece in the top of the second inning.

 

Great Lakes second baseman Devin Mann put the Loons in scoring position after leading off the bottom of the sixth with a double and almost scored, but West Michigan LF Dylan Rosa completely laid out on a line drive off the bat of Loons third baseman Luke Heyer, then came up throwing to gun Mann, who had tagged up, at third base with a 'Sports Center highlight' double play to end the Great Lakes scoring threat.

 

 After his run-saving double play in the sixth, Rosa (10) would add insult to injury in the eighth when he crushed a 2-run home run, his tenth of the season, to give the Whitecaps a 3-1 lead in the top half of the eighth inning.

 

Great Lakes managed to cut into the Whitecaps' lead in the bottom half of the inning when Loons DH Romer Cuadrado drove in second baseman Devin Mann (who had reached on an error) with a hard RBI-single up the middle to cut the West Michigan lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but the Whitecaps responded with another run in the ninth when Whitecaps CF Brock Deatherage drove in Proctor with an RBI-single to round out the scoring and give West Michigan a 4-2 lead it would never relinquish in the top of the ninth.

 

The Loons and Whitecaps will be back here at Dow Diamond for the second game of this 3-game series at 7:05 pm tomorrow night.