Captains fall short to Snappers

When there are 140 games on the schedule, there are going to be days and nights when the effort is there but the desired result is not, when the pieces are there but don’t quite fit together.

The Captains had one of those nights in a 5-3 loss to the Beloit (Wisc.) Snappers on May 4 at Classic Park.

Lake County starter and eventual loser Juan Hillman (0-4, 5.32 ERA) was solid enough, yielding four runs on six hits in six innings. Two of the runs were unearned because of an error. The Snappers nicked him for two runs in the top of the first inning but were held scoreless until adding two more in the top of the fifth inning.

Captains manager Luke Carlin liked the effort he got from the 6-foot-2 lefthander from Florida.

“Giving up early runs has been a struggle for Juan all season,” Carlin said. “It was nice to see him settle down and get us through the sixth (inning).”

Reliever Nick Gallagher followed Hillman to the mound and was impressive. The 22-year-old right-hander from Iowa gave up one run on two hits in three innings. He posted six strikeouts and did not issue a walk.

In three appearances covering 8 1/3 innings since joining the Captains on April 20 out of extended spring training, Gallagher is 0-0 with a 1.08 ERA.

The Captains had 10 hits, two more than the Snappers.

Problem was, the Captains stranded 12 baserunners compared to four for the visitors.

“It seemed like we always had something going but couldn’t get enough key hits,” Carlin said.

Two of the Captains did take care of business at the plate.

Second baseman Jorma Rodriguez had three singles and an RBI in five atbats, raising his batting average to a team-high .362.

“He’s been swinging it great and he’s been consistent,” Carlin said of Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has one home run, 13 RBI and the fourthhighest batting average in the full-season Single-A Midwest League.

First baseman Jose Vicente raised his batting average to .278 with a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning and two singles.

The Captains slipped to 12-14 with the loss. Beloit improved to 10-12.