Sodders lights out on a soggy night

The Captains were having a tough enough time on May 19 trying to solve West Michigan starter Austin Sodders.

Then the rain began to fall in the top of the sixth inning, making it even tougher for the Captains to get anything going against the 22-year-old left-hander from California.

Sodders came in with a 4-0 record and 0.87 ERA. After limiting the Captains to zero runs on two hits in six innings, he earned the victory and now is 5-0 with a 0.73 ERA.

It was the third time in this still-young season Sodders has gotten the better of the Captains with a pitch mix of above-average fastball, slider and change-up. In 17 innings, he has struck out 25 Lake County batters and walked only three. He’s 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA against the Captains.

“He’s throwing the ball well against everybody,” West Michigan manager Mike Rabelo said of Sodder.

Captains manager Larry Day also has been impressed by the 6-foot-4, 195-pound southpaw.

“It helps against us that he aces a lot of left-handed batters, but he’s pretty good,” Day said. “His arm angle is good. He’s long and the ball seems to come out of nowhere.”

Sodders is one of six starters putting up solid and sometimes spectacular numbers for the Detroit Tigers’ affiliate. West Michigan has the No. 1 -ranked pitching staff in the Midwest League with a 2.69 team era.

The Captains didn’t muster a hit against the two relievers who followed Sodders to a mound that required several treatments with drying material between half-innings as rain continued to fall steadily through the final out.

Several times homeplate umpire Jason Johnson conferred with Classic Park head groundskeeper Christo Wallace and the two managers about playing conditions, but each time the decision was to continue.

“The field was playable but we couldn’t have gone much longer,” Rabelo said. “There was so much water on the infield the lights were starting to reflect on the clay. That’s never a good thing.”

Lake County starter Micah Miniard (1-4, 5.40 ERA) took the loss but pitched long and mostly well. He surrendered four runs, all earned, in eight innings.