The Captains took the lead in the third inning when they loaded the bases with no outs against Dayton starting pitcher Luke Hayden on a double and two walks. An infield ground out brought in one run to put Lake County in front. In the fourth, Lake County’s Wuilfredo Antunez hit a solo home run to give the Captains a 2-0 lead, and Alfonsin Rosario homered in the fifth to extend Lake County’s lead to 3-0.
In the top of the sixth, Dayton’s Leo Balcazar lined a single to left field with one out, and Cam Collier followed with a home run to right to pull the Dragons to within a run at 3-2. The home run was Collier’s first since returning to the Dragons in his 10th game after he hit 20 homers for Dayton in 2024. Collier missed the first two months of this season with a thumb injury.
In the eighth, the Dragons felt they had tied the game when Balcazar hit a long drive to left field that cleared the fence for an apparent game-tying homer, but the ball was ruled foul by the plate umpire. Dragons manager Vince Harrison Jr. argued immediately and the two umpires met to discuss the play, but the call did not change to the dismay of the Dragons. Balcazar eventually lined out to third base.
Lake County added another run in the bottom of the eighth to go ahead 4-2. The Dragons did not have a base runner after the seventh inning.
Collier had two of the five Dragons hits.
The loss was charged to the Dayton starter, Hayden (1-2), who worked four innings, allowing two runs on just two hits but he issued five walks and topped 80 pitches in his outing. He struck out three. Relievers Trey Braithwaite and Easton Sikorski each worked two innings and each allowed one run.
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