Lansing - Lugnuts manager Ken Joyce compared his team's hitting Thursday night to the power outage that briefly took place after the game - short circuited.
It was another pitching duel for the first five innings at Oldsmobile Park between Lansing and South Bend until the Silver Hawks' bats came to life enough for a 5-1 victory. South Bend gave up two hits in the contest and won the series, 2-1.
"Up until today, the situational hitting was real good," Joyce said after the game. "We just didn't drive runners in, but they've done that all season so far."
Lugnuts starting pitcher Kyle Yates gave up no runs through six innings, and his pitching opponent Russ Ohlendorf gave up only two hits and one run in five innings pitched.
The Lugnuts (5-2) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth when right fielder Eric Nielsen smacked a ball deep to left field that would score catcher Curtis Thigpen from second base.
South Bend (5-2) manager Mark Haley was ejected in the top of the sixth inning when he stood nose to nose with the umpire, heatedly arguing a double play that ended the inning.
After South Bend grounded out to first, Lugnuts first baseman Chip Cannon made the throw to second to catch the runner from first base. Although the ball appeared to be dropped, the umpire called him out, prompting Haley to exit the dugout in a fit of rage.
"He motivated his team and got them going, and they took advantage of what they needed to do," Joyce said. "They're aggressive, they're a good-hitting ball club."
Although the ejection failed to immediately rile up the Silver Hawks, they took a 2-1 lead when Orlando Mercado cracked a two-run blast in the top of the seventh off of Lugnuts relief pitcher Po-Hsuan Keng.
South Bend increased its lead in the top of the eighth when the Silver Hawks scored on a wild pitch, then rocked Keng for a two-run homer, taking a comfortable 5-1 lead.
Upset Lugnuts fans grew frustrated with Lansing's inability to get hits and threw toilet paper rolls onto the field, delaying the game briefly. Upon resumption, the Lugnuts were unable to break out of the slump and fell, 5-1, only coming through with two hits.
"The biggest thing is just remember to learn from the mistakes that we made in the two games that we lost," Joyce said.
The Lugnuts will travel to Beloit, Wis. today to begin a four-game series with the Snappers.
Eric Fish can be reached at fisheric@msu.edu.
