Lake County wins in walkoff fashion

A Classic Park crowd of more than 7,000 — the biggest of the season — watches the Captains rally for a 4-3 win on a walk-off home run by Ulysses Cantu.

One of the most beautiful things about baseball is that the 27th out, not a clock, decides the end of the game and the winner. That beauty certainly isn’t lost on the Lake County Captains (21-27) this season, especially after their walk-off 4-3 victory on May 25 against the Great Lakes Loons (14-32) thanks to a one-out, two run homer by Ulysses Cantu that opened their brief four-game Memorial Day weekend home stand.

Todd Isaacs’ RBI triple and Tyler Friis’ RBI double in the eighth inning drove in the Captains first two runs of the game. Jonathan Laureano delivered a oneout, pinch hit double, and Cantu followed with the game winning two-homer to start the fireworks show early.

“That’s what this team is all about,” Cantu said of the comeback win and walk-off homer. “That’s how we’ve been. All year long we’ve had those games that we’ve been behind. This team never stops battling.”

Cantu’s not wrong. The Captains have outscored their opponents, 83-64, from the sixth inning on this year, though their now 6-22 record when trailing after six inning doesn’t completely reflect that effort.

They’ve had to fight even harder for wins lately. The Captains are coming off of a 1-6 road trip and have lost Austen Wade and Ernie Clement, two of their steadier hitters, to injuries and promotions of Jorma Rodriguez and pitcher Eli Morgan.

“This a team full of competitors,” Captains manger Luke Carlin. Said. “You take out the middle lineup, for good reasons. Jorma being promoted was a good thing. You take him out and a lot of guys have to fill those shoes … It’s two-fold. It brings an opportunity for guys who didn’t have as many, to get more at-bats and get an opportunity to show what they can do.”

The Captains seem to have the late innings figured out, it’s the first 18 outs of the game that they’re still figuring out and that goes for starter Juan Hillman.

Hillman walked leadoff batter Brayan Morales on six pitches and second hitter Zack McKinstry deposited a fastball deep into right field on the next pitch to give the Loons a 2-0 lead. Hillman settled in until a fifth when an error, wild pitch and walk led to the Loons’ third run of the game.

He’s allowed 21 runs in 9 2/3 innings first innings this year. Coming into this start against Great Lakes, he had held his ERA to a much more palatable 3.82. Despite the early struggles, Hillman has continued to bounce back after bad starts and bad first innings. He finished seven innings, allowing seven hits, three runs (two earned) while walking three and striking out four.”

“It’s competitiveness,” Carlin said of the lategame fight the Captains have. “Guys need to continue to do what they do and have that energy later in the game earlier in the game … (Juan) keeps us in the game. He’s doing everything he can.”

The walk-off win was seen by 7,098, the largest crowd of the season. The brief home stand continues May 26 at 6:30 with Gregori Vazquez (1-1, 3.57) going for the Captains against the Loons’ Leo Crawford (01, 4.50).