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.There was a big wind blowing Saturday night at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio, and it wasn’t coming off nearby Lake Erie.
It was the collective bats of the TinCaps and Lake County Captains that were stirring the breeze.
In a game when hits came at a premium, the TinCaps (27-29) made the most of five hits, beating Lake County 3-1 behind the six-hit pitching of Matthew Wisler, James Needy and Johnny Barbato. Between the TinCaps and the Captains, there were a combined 22 strikeouts.
Fourteen of those came from Wisler, who struck out eight and allowed five hits in five innings to get the win, and Needy and Barbato, who split four innings of one-hit relief and struck out six more batters.
On the other end, TinCaps batters struck out eight times against Captains pitchers Felix Sterling, Rob Nixon and Luis DeJesus.
The visitors scored two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth for all the runs they needed.
In the fourth, Travis Whitmore stroked a one-out single to left, and Yeison Asencio homered to left to make it a 2-0 game.
In the next inning, Kyle Gaedele drew a leadoff walk and came home on Tyler Stubblefield’s double to left to make it 3-0.
Lake County (26-29) got one back in the seventh on a leadoff walk, a throwing error by Needy on a pickoff attempt and an RBI ground-out by Francisco Lindor.
But the Captains were silent from there on out.
For the TinCaps, Stubblefield, Casey McElroy, Whitmore, Asencio and Duanel Jones all collected single hits.
