The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Martinez walk-off single wins it
Angel Martinez had every reason to hang his head after making a throwing error in the ninth inning to allow the visiting Great Lakes Loons tie the Captains at 3-3 on May 13.
Martinez chose to make up for that error instead.
Martinez ripped a single up the middle on the first pitch he saw from Loons reliever Jose Hernandez in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead the Captains to a 4-3 victory in front of more than 5,000 screaming fans at Classic Park.
The throw from center fielder Jonny DeLuca was on time, but Michael Amditis slid underneath the tag to set off a wild celebration on fireworks night in Eastlake.
“Pretty good, honestly,” said Martinez with a big smile of what the celebration felt like. “It was awesome.”
The Captains (14-16) looked like they were going to take a 3-2 victory when Petey Halpin scampered home from third base on a wild pitch from Great Lakes’ Ryan Sublette. But in the top of the ninth, Kekai Rios scored when Ismael Alcantara’s grounder to Martinez at short was thrown wide at first base to knot the game at 3-3.
With runners at first and second in the bottom of the ninth, Martinez hammered a pitch up the middle for the win. Martinez said he was looking for a dead-red fastball, and he got it.
“I knew he’d throw it and I was ready for it,” he said.
Manager Greg DiCenzo was pleased with Martinez’s bounce-back.
“You’re going to make mistakes. That’s part of the game,” he said. “How you respond to those mistakes is a perfect example right here.”
DiCenzo said there was no doubt he’d be sending Amditis home from second base on the hit. He challenged DeLuca and it paid off.
Amditis also had a clutch hit in the Captains’ victory over the Loons on May 12.
“It was a perfect throw. We had just enough in the tank (to score),” DiCenzo said. “We didn’t have a lot left on our lineup card to make changes from a speed standpoint. Mike Amditis you could argue won us a couple of games the last two games in a row.”
The Loons scored in the fourth when Eddys Leonard scored on a Jorbit Vivas single. In the bottom of the frame, Aaron Bracho homered to left to tie the game at 1-1.
Lake County then took a 2-1 lead when Connor Kokx scored on a fielding error.
It stayed that way until the eighth when DeLuca homered to left to tie the game at 2-2. Halpin walked on a strong eight-pitch atbat, went to second on a wild pitch, took third on a grounder and then scored on another wild pitch for the brief 3-2 lead.
“He never hesitated,” DiCenzo said of Halpin’s aggressive nature on the bases. “Again, we had Kokxy earlier in the game running hard on the bases. We have a lot of guys doing really good things right now.”