After six runs in the first three innings and a six-inning shutout by starter Justin Hancock, the TinCaps looked to be cruising to a win against Bowling Green on Thursday.FORT WAYNE – Robert Eisenbach could have had a perfect 10th inning.
Instead, the Fort Wayne left-hander ended up as the tough-luck losing pitcher, as the TinCaps made two errors in the 10th, falling to Great Lakes 4-2 in front of 4,147 fans Wednesday at Parkview Field.
“It’s tough to see that happened after those guys battled,” TinCaps manager Jose Valentin said. “We didn’t make the plays when we had to, and it cost us the game.”
Fort Wayne (24-29) lost for the fifth time in six games.
Eisenbach retired the first two batters in the 10th.
O’Koyea Dickson then hit a grounder to third. Duanel Jones fielded it cleanly, but threw wild to first base. Dickson made it to second on the error. Eisenbach then intentionally walked Scott Schebler.
Joe Winker came up and hit a fly ball to right field. Yeison Asencio got there in plenty of time, but didn’t catch the ball. Dickson and Schebler scored on the error to give the Loons (28-25) a 4-2 lead.
“(Great Lakes) made the plays when they had to,” Valentin said.
“We didn’t do it.”
Fort Wayne had five hits, but none after the third inning.
Kyle Gaedele led off the third with a double. He moved to third on a groundout. He stayed there when Tyler Stubblefield grounded out to third for the second out. Casey McElroy grounded out to starting pitcher Ryan O’Sullivan to end the inning.
The TinCaps took a 2-1 lead when Lee Orr scored on a throwing error by catcher Jan Vazquez in the seventh. Fort Wayne had a chance to tack on some more runs in the inning, loading the bases with two outs.
But Great Lakes second baseman Jesus Arredondo made a nice stop on a grounder by Jace Peterson and threw him out to end the inning.
The TinCaps had runners on first and third with one out in the eighth, but Arredondo made a great diving stop on a grounder by Travis Whitmore and turned it into an inning-ending double play.
Great Lakes tied the game in the ninth when Winker led off the inning with a home run off Johnny Barbato.
Winker came through again an inning later, with the benefit of poor defense.
“As soon as we went down, we pretty much gave up on it,” Valentin said. “I didn’t see any fire in the guys to try to go back there and forget about the two mistakes we made in the 10th.
“We just have to forget about what happened today and be a better team tomorrow.”
