The Dayton Dragons were defeated by the West Michigan Whitecaps 5-3 Thursday night game after committing several errors and being cooled off on offense in the latter innings of the game.
The Dragons were plagued by sloppy defense with five errors leading to three unearned runs.
“It’s one of those bumps in the road that you just have to forget about afterwards. If we see that is something that is happening often we need to improve,” Dayton manager Jose Nieves said. “We did pretty good with our bats coming back, but shutdown with our offensive side. It’s tough to overcome those deficits.”
Though the game ended in defeat after an error filled night, the rally the Dragons put on early in the game was a positive take away, according to Nieves.
“When you have a deficit and you work your way out in order to stay in the game it’s only a matter of time to put everything together,” Nieves said. “When you come back, pitch well and defend well, things are going to turn around like last night.”
The Whitecaps scored two runs in the top of the first with two RBI singles by right fielder Michael Gerber and third baseman Joey Pankake. Gerber tacked another run on in the top of the third with an RBI double into the right field corner.
The Whitecaps pulled ahead in the top of the fifth with a ground out RBI to first and a sacrifice fly to left field.
The Dragons’ bats were relatively quiet with an RBI single by center fielder Brian O’Grady in the top of the first, a solo homerun into the left field seats by right fielder Jonathan Reynoso and a sacrifice fly by third baseman Gavin LaValley in the bottom of the third.
After having the early offensive streak, the team’s bats were quieted the rest of the way. The Dragon’s biggest unanswered offensive threat came in the bottom of the fourth when the bases were left loaded.
“We couldn’t get some timely hits tonight,” O’Grady said. “Early in the game we got a couple. We just couldn’t carry that throughout the whole game.”
Though the Dragons were stifled on offense, the team nearly held it together, according to O’Grady.
“We’ve got a great pitching staff here. We had five errors tonight, and we were still in the game,” O’Grady said. “They’re going to throw strikes and get people out. As long as we play defense behind them we’re going to have a lot of success this year.”
Starting Dragon’s pitcher Tyler Mahle was pulled after five innings in which he gave up two earned runs and seven hits.
