LANSING - The Lugnuts dropped their fourth-straight game Sunday - a 1-0, 10-inning pitchers’ duel to the Quad City River Bandits at Oldsmobile Park.
After losing the series opener 6-4 to Quad City on Saturday, Bandit second baseman Reggie Gonzalez ended Lansing’s hopes of taking game two with his game-winning home run off of reliever Ferenc Jongejan (0-2) in the top of the 10th.
Despite the loss, Lansing (16-28) found a bright spot in starting pitcher Aaron Krawiec, who allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked four. On April 29, Krawiec’s last start in a Sunday matinee, he set a club record with 17 strikeouts.
“I had good command for the most part,” Krawiec said. “I didn’t feel as good as I did a couple of Sundays ago, but you just gotta work with what you have. You try to throw strikes and just hope the team plays well behind you.”
The rest of the Lugnuts only made one error in the field, but could only muster five hits against four Bandit pitchers led by starter Jeffrey Randazzo.
Lugnuts manager Julio Garcia said Lansing had opportunities to pull out a win against Quad City (30-12).
“You have to commend both starting pitchers,” Garcia said. “Krawiec pitched good at the beginning of the game and those guys pitched well. We had our chances. There were a couple of situations I thought we could have capitalized on.”
Lansing’s best and weirdest chance came with one out in the bottom of the eighth. With second baseman Blake Blasi on first, third baseman Dionnar Martinez took ball three from Andy Persby. But Blasi thought the count was 3-2, thanks to an incorrect scoreboard, and jogged to second only to be tagged out on the way.
“I lost track of the count and by the time I looked up at the scoreboard, it said full count,” Blasi said. “That’s just one of those things in baseball you gotta learn from and try not to let it happen again. Just try to keep your head in the game all the time and know what the count is.”
Lansing continues its series with Quad City at 7:05 p.m. today. They round out the series at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday with their second Grand Slam School Day of the year.
