Lakewood Blue Claws �11, �West Virginia Power �5 (box)
DH Kyle Morgan drove in 4 runs for the Power, but two late-inning rallies blew the game wide open for Lakewood. �Lakewood opened the scoring in the top of the 1st with two runs on three singles and a double off starter Phillip Irwin. After that inning, Irwin settled down to pitch 4 scoreless innings. �He scattered two singles, a walk, and a hit batter over those 4 innings.
The Power tied the game at 2-2 with a run in the 2nd and another in the 3rd. �C Ramon Cabrera walked to lead off the 2nd, and LF Rogelios Noris reached base on a fielding error. �A sacrifice bunt by 3B Jesus Brito moved the runners to second and third bases, and Morgan’s sacrifice fly drove in Cabrera. �Stolen bases were the key in the 3rd inning. �CF Evan Chambers singled, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch. �He scored on 2B Jarek Cunningham’s single, and Cunningham also stole second base.
Gabriel Alvarado took over for Irwin to begin the 6th inning, and the first batter he faced gave Lakewood the lead with a solo home run. �Kyle Morgan answered with his own homer in the bottom of the inning, but his came after Cabrera had doubled and Brito had walked, so the 3-run blast gave the Power a 5-3 lead.
But things got nasty for the Power pitchers in the next two innings. �With Alvarado still on the mound, two walks, a sacrifice bunt and a throwing error by Alvarado gave Lakewood two runs to begin the 7th and tie the score. �Alvarado was relieved by Marc Baca, and he got a ground out, then hit a batter with a pitch. �A single brought in the third run of the inning, to give Lakewood a 6-5 lead.
Three errors in the bottom of the 8th inning contributed to 5 unearned runs for Lakewood. �A fielding error by SS Benji Gonzalez put a runner on base to begin the inning, and that was followed by a single. �A fielding error by Cunningham brought in a run and put another runner on. �After a strikeout, a throwing error by Gonzalez loaded the bases. �That brought up Lakewood 1B Jonathan Singleton, who cleared the bases with a grand slam. �A strikeout and a ground out ended the inning.
The Power were unable to respond to that onslaught. �Only one Power batter reached base over the last three innings, and that was 1B Aaron Baker, who singled in the 7th and stole second. �Jhonatan Ramos pitched the final inning for the Power, and he struck out the side.
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