TinCaps win at South Bend

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Fort Wayne manager Jose Valentin reflects on a four-game losing streak and his TinCaps' first four-game sweep at home since 2006. The team lost to division-leading South Bend 7-3 on Friday.Today 3:00 am

Notebook: South Bend 7, TinCaps 3

Fort Wayne dropped its fourth-straight game, a season high streak, against South Bend on Friday. The 7-3 loss by the TinCaps moved them 4 1/2 games out of first place in the Midwest League Eastern Division standings.Friday

South Bend gets four-game sweep of TinCaps

The TinCaps suffered their first four-game home sweep since 2006 with a 7-3 loss to South Bend on Friday at Parkview Field.Friday

Cody Hebner tossed five shutout innings, and Austin Hedges hit a grand slam as the TinCaps rolled to an 8-1 win over the South Bend Silver Hawks on Tuesday. Fort Wayne used a seven-run fourth inning to surge to the win.

Fort Wayne (2-3) scored in the first when, with runners at first and third, South Bend (2-3) pitcher JR Bradley (0-1) was called for a balk. That allowed Donavan Tate to score.

The first seven TinCaps batters in the fourth to reached on base hits, and all of them scored. The big play was Hedges’ grand slam that put the TinCaps in front 6-0.

It was the first home run of the year for Fort Wayne, which entered the game as just one of three teams in the league without a home run. The TinCaps scored twice more in the inning. Hedges finished the game with four RBI.

Hebner (1-0) went five innings in his Fort Wayne debut, striking out six of the first seven batters he faced, nine total. Luis De La Cruz, Robert Eisenbach and Matt Stites combined for four innings of one-run relief.

In addition to Hedges, Tate, Casey McElroy, Travis Whitmore and Kyle Gaedele all had multi-hit performances.

The final game of the series pits Fort Wayne lefty Frank Garces (0-0, 0.00) against righthander Archie Bradley (0-0, 0.00) for South Bend. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.